Love that Logic
by je buurman
Summary: Muggleborn and muggle raised witches and wizards have one major advantage over purebloods - logic. Hermione proves this as she uses it to become the Hogwarts triwizard champion and shows some serious girl power.
1. 1 - Obvious solution

(A/N) Yeah yeah, I know… Start a fanfic, abandon it for half a year, add one chapter, abandon it yet again, and then START A NEW ONE. I'm despicable. But I guess I just sort of lost interest in the other one, and I liked this idea so much. I love Hermione stories, and I just can't believe I never yet came across one that featured her as a triwizard champion.

Well, that leaves me to solve that injustice, I suppose. I might update the other one again at some point though, I got a nearly ready chapter sitting in my laptop. Or I might just focus on this one, we'll see.

Oh, and add the usual disclaimer….

* * *

**Chapter one – Obvious solution**

Hermione peered over the edge of her book. Much as she hated to admit it, she was watching the Weasley twins try to enter the triwizard tournament with a modicum of jealousy. Not that she thought they would succeed, never that. However, she wanted so much to prove that muggleborns were as good as purebloods, and entering the tournament would be a foolproof way to do that. After all, an ancient magical artifact could hardly be tricked into believing the wrong person to be better.

"Ain't gonna work lads!", she yelled in a singsong voice at the twins, in a rather poor impression of an American accent, just as they swallowed their aging potions.

"Like to see you do better, Granger!", they replied in unison as they jumped over the age line. Predictably they were repelled. Hermione thought deeply as the boys gained an impressive beard each.

"Come on Hermione, muggleborns should have some advantage…", she thought to herself. She knew it was true, and she knew what it was. Logic. But how in the world would that help her? Unless… But would they really be THAT stupid? Well, knowing wizardkind, probably.

She looked around. Quite the crowd of professors and students had gathered to see the Weasley twins off. Nice, loads of eyewitnesses, that way she wouldn't be accused of dark magic of some such thing. Calmly she shut her book, stuffed it back in her schoolbag and set the bag aside so that no one would tread on it if panic were to ensue, which she was fairly sure could happen because of what she was about to do.

One last time she glanced at the piece of paper she had already prepared in case she had an epiphany – like she had just had. "Hermione Jean Granger, Hogwarts" it simply stated, in her immaculate handwriting. She arose, went to stand in the middle of the hall and drew her wand. The next two words she'd speak might change her life…

"Wingardium leviosa!"

Silence ensued. The crowd of people seemed to freeze over in its entirety, as countless pairs of eyes followed the progress of the small slip of paper across the age line into the cup. Hermione smiled. Sure, she was just a fourth year, but she was rather smart, so she might just stand a chance.

"I can't believe I'm the only one to have thought of that!", she quietly muttered, not realizing that everyone would hear it due to the utter silence. Her words broke the silence though, and hysteria took over the masses as pretty much every underage student frantically searched for quills and parchment. Wand still out, Hermione quickly accioed her bag. Sure, she wasn't supposed to know the summoning charm yet, but we all know better than to believe that to prevent her from being able to do it.

Bag in hand, she dove into a not-so-secret passageway, hiding before one of the professors could get a hold on her. As she ran off to her little escape place she waited for self-doubt and remorse to hit, surprised when it didn't come. She needed thinking time though, and she knew of but one place where she could get it.

* * *

When the twins were released from the hospital wing, they were quite confused. The entire school was in a state of disarray, and they didn't have anything to do with it. They soon got the entire story from Harry though. He quickly brought them up to speed and explained how in the aftermath Hermione had disappeared, Ron had thrown a jealous pity-party, and that Snape was now guarding the goblet, setting fire to pieces of parchment before they could hit the goblet's flames, his greasy hair full of paper airplanes. The twins had no idea what an airplane was, but the mental image of that last bit sounded funny, though they worried about Hermione.

Harry loudly complained that he couldn't find her on the map, which caused them to look at each other and run off. They apparently knew where she was hidden. Harry stared after them and slid a hand through his hair. He would never understand the two of them, was what he thought as he cursed the uncooperative map once again.

* * *

Meanwhile, Hermione, lost in thought, suddenly found her vision obscured by large quantities of ginger hair. Frantically she tried to dislodge herself from the triple suffocation attempt the twins seemed to have involved her in which their mother would have defined as a 'hug'.

Vaguely she noticed them yelling something along the lines of "Our new hero!" as her oxygen reserves depleted themselves.

"Wh… Wh… WHAT?!", she spluttered as soon as she regained her breath. "How could you have found me? This place isn't even on the map!"

And it wasn't. She had found this secret room in the library during her first year when she tried to pry an ancient copy of "Hogwarts a History" off a secluded shelf, and the wall suddenly turned around, revealing a cozy place with a fire crackling in the corner and a few couches ready to be sat on. She had been happy to find out that it wasn't on the map when Harry got it, and quite smug that she had beaten the infamous Marauders at something.

"No, indeed…"

"… this place…"

"… is not…"

"… on the map…"

"… which is how…"

"… we found it, because…"

"… you always disappeared…"

"… in the middle of the library…"

"… which we considered rather suspicious."

Hermione had actually lost track of whom said what during that little speech. She narrowed her eyes

"So you just stalked me until you understood how I got in here?"

The twins nervously studied their shoes and grunted noncommittally, suitably ashamed.

"Anything to get the two of you into a library…", she muttered, not really knowing what to say to such a thing. The twins looked quite baffled that this was her reaction, and offered none of their own.

"Those Marauder types probably didn't spend all that much time in the library.", Hermione muttered again. She seemed to mutter more and more that day.

"Smart lads!", Fred commented, whilst George nodded his head vigorously.

"But that's beside the point.", George added. "The point is that you're bloody BLOODY brilliant! I mean, we all knew you were the most brilliant witch of your age, but now we might just think that you equal us, the two most brilliant wizards of our age!"

"Oh, you think so, do you. I rather thought that I surpassed you.", she retorted, as she remembered Sirius, an actual Marauder, offering her and Harry to become honorary Marauders as they waved him off when he flew away on Buckbeak's back. Not that the twins needed to know about that.

"Anyway, Minnie is looking for you!", Fred happily stated.

"O gods, she's going to kill me, or at least expel me or…", Hermione began to rant once she realized that Fred meant McGonagall by that, until he interrupted her.

"Don't fret!", he said.

"No, don't Fred!", George interjected.

"Because she's…", they said together, trailing off like they couldn't believe it themselves.

"Proud of you.", they quietly added.

"And we're too!", they yelled enthusiastically before hugging/suffocating her once more.

"Now don't sulk and come along!", George finally added and hoisted her onto his back before she could protest, carrying her all the way to McGonagall's office, where Hermione was surprised to find out that her stern head of house was utterly delighted.

* * *

"Dammit, can't just stun a bloody ghost guard!", a certain Barty Crouch Junior thought to himself. Additional security measures had been placed around the cup because that infernal mudblood girl had found a loophole. The wards he could overcome, but there was now a guard too, and not just any guard, but a ghost guard. Dorky Dumbles, as Barty liked to call Dumbledore, had insisted on a guard, but the teachers had all insisted that nobody had time enough to take care of such a thing.

At this point it no longer surprised Barty that the stupid mudblooded bint had been the one to suggest using the ghosts, for "They had little to do anyway, wouldn't fall asleep and, as an extra benefit, couldn't be stunned or something like that by overly ambitious wannabe contestants, it's no more than logical.", he mentally quoted the chit. He had actually gnashed his teeth together during the meeting where this was decided, because a stunning spell had been his plan exactly for whatever guard would be placed.

That got Barty to have a major headache, and a severe drinking binge, whilst he tried to think of a way to get around the ghost. He wouldn't think of anything before the names were already drawn.

* * *

The evening during which the names would be drawn was one with an air of quiet anticipation. Nearly Headless Nick was on guard duty when Hermione crossed the hall to the Gryffindor table.

"All clear, Nick?", she found herself saying, in a bad American accent, yet again. She had visited the States some years previously, and for some reason the habit had stuck with her from when she and her father reenacted dialogues from movies while they were there.

Nick had been even more friendly than usual to her than usual since the spectacle she had created, and now even went as far as to salute her back.

"My humble greetings, fair lady, go bring Gryffindor some honor tonight!"

Hermione grinned at the antics of the house ghost. He seemed to be happy to have a mission, or a 'noble quest' as he had called it when put into position next to the goblet. As ghost guard go, he was definitely one of the better ones, whilst there had been many who tried the job.

The Fat Friar of Hufflepuff had been easily distracted by students coming to chat with him, but he had remedied this on Hermione's advice by floating so that the goblet was in the middle of his voluminous belly. That way nobody could get his hand anywhere near the thing without getting an unpleasant freezing feeling, and it looked pretty cool to have his head full of flames.

The Grey Lady of Ravenclaw had at least been vigilant, but her denigrating gaze had kept everyone but the Claws from entering during her watch.

Last but not least, the Bloody Baron of Slytherin had doubled up with Peeves for a disastrous morning shift, and between the two of them five priceless paintings and one suit of armor had been destroyed, nobody had dared to enter their names, and everyone had fled from the great hall halfway through breakfast.

So yeah, Nick had been a pretty decent guard. Hermione smiled to herself. Anything that brought fame to Gryffindor was a good thing in Nick's book, no wonder he suddenly was so fond of her. All thoughts about the gentle ghost disappeared however, as she sat down for the delicious feast.

* * *

Fleur Delacour, Victor Krum, blablablah, it hardly mattered to anyone, they just wanted to know the fate of that little bushy-haired Gryffindor that quietly sat at her table, sandwiched between two redheads, Harry Potter sitting opposite her providing cover from the Slytherin table.

A piece of parchment shot out of the goblet. Dumbledore caught it swiftly.

"Could he perhaps have been a seeker in his younger years?", Hermione idly wondered, until his mouth opened and the air seemed to freeze over as he commenced to speak.

Sure enough, he read the name I guess you guessed already.

"Hermione Jean Granger, would you please come forward, for you are the champion for Hogwarts school."

The Hermione Jean Granger in question happily jumped up, brushed the residual crumbs of her dinner off her skirt and all but skipped over to the little room to the side where she would get instructions.

The rest of the evening passed quickly in a blur of lecherous glances from Krum's part, jealous fits from that infernal Ronald, some more suffocating hugs from the various other Weasley inhabitants of the castle, and a true Gryffindoresque party complete with overly loud music and loads of butterbeer in her honor that lasted late into the night.


	2. 2 - Bloody & Blackmail

(A/N) Wow… I got reviews… And they're all friendly and stuff! Life is good. So, thanks to RainDancin, Fool's Tutor, Sarah and Crazyhyper09, you made me a very happy girl. I even have followers! How I love that word, it makes me feel like an evil warlord with minions.

Anyway, about those tasks. What I had in my head for them is indeed pretty much the plan Fool's Tutor laid out, only I planned to have her fly over the maze rather than walk around it, but of course now I realize that Hermione hates flying. Damn, my memory just developed an inferiority complex. Whatever, that was what I THOUGHT would be nice, but now I think I'd prefer to have some sort of pureblood conspiracy to get her killed by making the tasks extra difficult. I mean, those bigoted idiots wouldn't care all that much if some French girl and a grumpy Bulgarian die as well because of it, as long as they eliminate the threat. That way there remains some excitement in the tournament. It is all fun to think of Malfoy's face as every champion sweats away whilst Hermione solves her tasks in some easy manner, but even that gets old after a while.

* * *

"Ronald." Fred.

"Ronald." George.

"Ickle Ronniekins." Fred.

"RONALD." George.

"For heaven's sake Ron!" Fred.

They had been at this for at least five minutes already. Upon returning to the common room to drop off their bags before they went to lunch, the twins had found their baby brother sulking on a couch, and decided to talk some sense into him. They hadn't missed the fact that Ron had been suspiciously absent during the celebratory party the night before, and they surely hadn't missed the derisive look Hermione had sent his way during breakfast that morning. Being his brothers, they knew of Ron's jealousy issues like no other, and knew this situation would turn ugly if someone didn't talk some sense into the boy really soon.

"What would you have me say!", Ron finally exploded, "That I should be all happy that she got into the tournament or something?"

"Yes."

"As a matter of fact you should."

"For you seem to have forgotten this, but she IS your friend."

"And friends are supposed to be happy for each other when they achieve something."

Ron gaped at them for a few moments, his face resembling a narcoleptic goldfish.

"But… It just isn't right!"

"Why then, ickle brother of mine?", Fred feigned interest.

"It just isn't, you know that!", Ron spluttered in return.

"I'm afraid we don't.", George's voice now took on a slightly threatening quality, as Fred narrowed his eyes.

"Yes, but please enlighten us, the poor uneducated plebeians of this society."

Ron actually seemed to think it over for some time, before he started to rant.

"Isn't it obvious then? I was going to enter my name, I'm sure I would have thought of a way. Then SHE comes in and steals my chance, and then even helps those bloody professors upgrade the bloody security so that there's no bloody way for me to bloody get in. I was going to be a champion, win, get those thousand galleons, and then I'd never be poor again and I'd have all the fame and pretty girls I could want."

The twins rolled their eyes at each other.

"Erm, Ron, no offence, but you wouldn't have thought of something."

"You're denser than a door, you would've flunked out of school long ago if not for Hermione."

"Well, at least that explains how he can be so delusional as to think he'd stand a chance."

"Yeah, he simply has no brain at all."

"Or we dropped him once to many when he was a baby."

"Just once?"

"Would you quit talking about me as if I'm not here already!", Ron suddenly bellowed, and the twins stopped. George scratched his ear.

"Nah, we wouldn't. It's not as if you would contribute something useful to our conversation."

"The point is,", Fred continued, "that you've been an absolute prat to Hermione, at the moment where she needs her friends' support the most. Sure, three quarters of the school consider her a hero now, but that leaves the Slytherins. There will also be sixth and seventh years who resent her for taking what they see as their spot."

The twins pretended not to hear Ron say "Well she has, hasn't she.", and simply continued.

"And don't forget the boys. Now that she has some sort of status, they'll all try to get into her pants just for the bragging rights."

"No, not just for the bragging rights.", Fred interjected with a thoughtful and slightly dreamy look.

"Yeah, you're right. Those louts wouldn't give a damn for her personality, however wonderful it is, but she's a pretty thing to look at too.", George agreed. Fred looked determined now.

"Aye, that's right. This complicates the matter, we'd better send guards with her from now on…"

The rest of the discussion was drowned out as Ron howled with laughter.

"PRETTY? The bloody bossy buck-toothed bushy-haired beaver? I never before considered you two funny, but this does it, really!"

The twins looked aghast at their brother. The portrait hole slammed shut in the background. Fred bent over to whisper to George.

"She heard that last bit, didn't she?"

"Guess so. We have to find her."

"Drag Harry back from lunch, we need the map."

* * *

~ 10 minutes later ~

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." George said as he chewed on one of the various sandwiches he'd snatched up as he went to the great hall to get Harry.

"Where could she be?", he wondered.

"Dunno. Library? Isn't that where she usually goes?", Harry offered, and George checked the area immediately.

"If she's there of course that doesn't mean that we can see her…", he muttered as he watched the tiny dots go about their business. Harry gave him an odd look, but George was saved from having to give an explanation by the arrival of Fred.

"Nah, just checked THAT place already. Nobody there."

The three young men thought for a moment, before Harry offered another suggestion.

"She didn't go to lunch. Can't she just have been hungry?"

Fred snatched the map out of George's hands and checked the kitchens.

"She's there already…"

"Having a little tête-a-tête with Diggory."

Harry frowned.

"Should we be worried about that?"

"Nah, when it comes to our tiny-Mione we actually trust Diggory a little further than we can throw him."

"He's been good to her, even when she was in first year."

"We worried a great deal about her back when you were still ickle firsties."

"Yeah, she didn't really have friends then, and our wee brother especially was being such a prat."

"So we figured that if we were pranking people anyway, we might as well prank the idiots that were mean to her."

"And we were sort of stalking her in the library back then."

The twins got suspicious grins on their faces while thinking of the secret chamber.

"But the reason for that last bit is not our story to tell."

"Anyway, this one time she couldn't reach a book on a shelf, so she asked Diggory because he's tall and he stood there anyway. Somehow she ended up correcting his THIRD YEAR transfiguration essay, and they've been friends ever since."

Harry looked suitably flabbergasted.

"How comes I don't know one of my best friends is gallivanting all of Hogwarts with some vapid pretty-boy?", he demanded angrily. The twins just got a devious spark in their eyes.

"Think Diggory is pretty, don't you?"

Harry spluttered.

"You know I don't mean it that way! How comes they're friends?"

"Well, I can't pretend to understand that girl, but I'd say that she likes to converse with an at least moderately intelligent being occasionally, figure it's a nice break from you, ickle Ronniekins and those demonic roommates of hers."

"Aye, for some pretty-faced Hufflepuff, Diggory actually has quite a brain, he's in our year, top of the class. Annoys the hell out of the 'Claws, he'll probably be headboy next year."

"Yeah yeah, I get it. As long as this is more about eyewitness OWL reports than about little kitchen expeditions like now, I guess I can accept it.", Harry grudgingly admitted. "I just don't see how I never noticed this before."

"Well, you can be rather dense…"

* * *

~ meanwhile in the kitchens ~

Hermione hated herself. She had never liked Ronald in any way, could barely tolerate him as a friend even, and now she was ruining the shirt of a real friend by sobbing into it.

"Hey, our pretty school champion shouldn't cry!", Cedric looked down at her with worry in his eyes as he held her.

"P-Pretty?" She had just stammered out an explanation in a rather grammatically incorrect manner. The twins had said that too. She herself was in two minds about it. She had a very clear, soft skin, the sort people with acne would kill for. She liked her deep brown eye color too, and her facial features were quite elegant. That left the bushy hair and the beaver teeth though, and since that was all most people could see, insecurities remained.

"Yeah, this way you'll have red eyes on all the photo's the Creepy kid will illegally send to the Prophet.", Cedric remarked, using the opportunity to force-feed the girl in his lap some chocolate cake.

"Creevey.", Hermione corrected.

"The stalkerative one, guess that's him.", Cedric shrugged. Hermione thought deeply though.

"Isn't there some law against that? It surely compromises ones privacy.", she wondered.

"You're right! There are libel laws in the wizarding world. However…" Cedric looked a little uncomfortable. Hermione sighed.

"Let me guess, purebloods are favored in court?" Cedric just nodded. To his astonishment however, Hermione suddenly smiled.

"Wonderful! That means we just need some incriminating photos of say… Malfoy. We'll call it an eye for an eye; if I can't convict someone for libel, they can't stop me from doing the same."

Wicked grins spread over their faces.

"To the Weasley twins!", they echoed. Those were really the best men for the job.

Hermione glanced at the remainder of the chocolate cake.

"Hmmm, I think I'll finish that first, it suddenly looks a lot more appetizing." Cedric smiled happily, he always worried about her eating habits, she simply seemed to forget about mealtimes between all the studying she did.

"I already figured out a plan anyway, and we'll need to wait until morning for it. Might as well bide our time on a full stomach."

"Sometimes you really scare me, Hermione, you're showing your inner Slytherin."

She snorted, momentarily not responding because her mouth was already occupied.

"You're the Slytherin here, you know my theory about the sorting hat."

"No, actually I don't. I recall some comments about 'the Claws of these days being such bloody Puffs', and you sometimes mistake Slytherins for Gryffindors, but I never got the full story."

Hermione took a moment to chew her cake and to go over her mental catalogue of conversations.

"No, you don't.", she said surprised. "Then I might as well tell you." She adjusted a bit in his lap and brushed the crumbs from her own.

"The Slytherins are a bunch of arrogant gits who talk before they think, while that sort of brash behavior is Gryffindor's job. Slytherins are supposed to be socializers: people who make a lot of contacts to potentially exploit. Those people now end up in Hufflepuff, whilst the true Puffs get into Ravenclaw because of their obsessive study habits that are actually an example of the legendary Hufflepuff work-ethic. Last but not least and strange as it sounds, the Claws go to Gryffindor. This has nothing to do with general intellect, but with true insight and talent. Neville is a natural with plants, Harry could probably get his defense OWL now without blinking twice. Even Ronald, prat as he is, has great strategical insight, and I guess I don't even have to mention myself."

Cedric stared at her for some time, as his mind processed the overload of information.

"Wow, that actually makes sense in a really odd way. What does the sorting hat have to do with it, though?"

"Well, he sorts people. I checked some records out of curiosity, and the personality division between the houses was a lot more like I just described it up to about two generations ago, something must've happened."

"The Grindelwald War.", Cedric blurted out, almost like a reflex. Hermione assumed a thoughtful look.

"That fits in really well. Dumbledore became a teacher here about that time, and since he was a Gryffindor in his days, the house would be associated with his side, like the general prejudice is, nowadays. Naturally that'd make the opposite side favor Slytherin, because of the row between the founders."

"Dumbledore can do just about anything, manipulating the sorting hat would be a piece of cake for him. No idea why he would want to do such a thing though, he always seems so pro-inter house friendships. You recon anyone else could have done it?"

"Oh, you'd need a pretty strong confundus charm for it, but I'm sure most wizards and witches could have."

With that they got up to look for the Weasley twins.

* * *

Late in the evening the next day the twins returned from the hospital wing where they had claimed an anti-nausea potion each. They had fulfilled their task, but it had not been a pretty sight.

"I wondered how Diggory came to know so much about Malfoy's shower-schedule."

"Indeed brother, this really does explain it though. I thought he just meant Malfoy showered long after quidditch practice, but waiting until the showers are empty really makes him annoyingly late."

"And bloody hell, the reason it is for!"

"Never would have guessed…"

"Never in my life, yes. But you know what this means, don't you?"

"Yes, we have to start planning some gender jokes."

In the common room, Hermione was still up waiting for the end of the mission to hold a debriefing

"What kept you so long, boys? Don't tell me you actually enjoyed watching the ponce shower, you were only supposed to snap a picture for blackmail.", she grumbled.

"Erm, 'Mione, we got a bit more than what we bargained for."

* * *

Mr. Malfoy,

We happen to be aware of the true gender of your 'son'. Better still, we have a frontal picture. Wouldn't like to have that on display on the front of the Prophet, eh? This is not a threat though. This is merely a strong suggestion to vote in favor if any non-purebloods call on the libel laws in times to come.

Don't worry, you would only find out who we are if it were already too late.

* * *

Dear ms. Skeeter,

Over the past few years, I read a few of your… delightful articles. Imagine my… happiness when I found out that you are to be the head reporter in all matters concerning the Triwizard Tournament in which I happen to compete. Hence, I would like to point out three little things:

I know what a Quick-Quotes Quill is, and am aware of the very strict regulations for using them.

I am perfectly aware of the existence of libel laws in the wizarding world. I also know in which degree they would normally apply to me, so I have taken provisions to ensure fair treatment. It will work, just take my word for that.

I am good friends with both Neville Longbottom and Harry Potter, and between the two of them their families hold enough of the Prophet's shares to make your bosses reconsider your employment.

I hope this letter reaches you in good health.

Regards,

Hermione Granger

Gryffindor 5th year, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry


	3. 3 - Dealing with Dragons part one

(A/N)

Whoohoo, reviews again! Arabella Lee Smith, Lisia, Hellcat-Sakura and Fool's Tutor this time, thanks to you all! All the advice is very inspiring.

As to parents coming over to see the tasks, I believe they were only allowed to come to the third one. I like the idea of the purebloods being confronted with a pair of muggles though, so I guess I'll make that a little difference from the canon.

I have big plans for Malfoy by the way. I always saw the whole rivalry with Harry as some sort of sexual tension from the little ferrets part, but I don't like most of those slash stories with them in it, because they're usually so crude. Stories in which Harry is female and falls for Malfoy can be great fun though, so I decided to turn it around. Don't know yet if our little ferretête will get Harry though, we'll let 'him' sweat for at least a few more chapters, and I know the perfect distraction, HarHarHar.

I also don't know yet whom to pair Hermione up with. Not Krum, I have far too much fun with having her refuse him. My two absolute favorite Hermione pairings are Cedric Diggory and Bill Weasley. Bill is much older than her though, and with her being only 15 that makes quite a difference. Oh, and he's stuck in Egypt and has spoken for perhaps half an hour total to her. Cedric on the other hand is already a good friend to her, and closer in age, so I guess he'll get the girl. I'm always open for suggestions however!

* * *

**Chapter 3 – Dealing with Dragons part one**

An owl swooped down towards the group of seven people that sat next to the Lake. One of the redheads amongst them relieved the animal of its burden, a short letter, whilst another convinced it to stay for a bit by feeding it some scraps of the bacon they had taken with them from the breakfast they had just vacated.

"Awww, aren't you the sweetest little thing?", Ginny Weasley crooned rhetorically at the bird whilst it swallowed the treat. She stroked its feathers as she went back to chatting with Lee Jordan who had tagged along with the twins as they came to meet Hermione and Cedric. Harry had invited himself along for the sole purpose of interrogating Cedric, and was now firmly locked in a staring contest.

Hermione shifted a bit on the hard ground. It was early November and already freezing, the ground had become rock hard. The air temperature, around their spot at any rate, was really comfortable though, because of the warming ward she'd set up. She liked warming wards, they were clever. She had learned of this particular one during a brief conversation with the eldest Weasley son that summer. She, Bill and Mrs. Weasley apparently were the only early risers in the house, and since the latter had been out that particular morning, she and Bill had ended up having some coffee together in the kitchen.

Always curious, Hermione had started asking him questions about his job as a curse breaker. A lot of his work was based on ancient runes, and those never failed to interest her because she could practice them during the summer

"So, if wards and such consist of runes, and you don't need any spellwork to activate the minor ones, just contact, an underage person could create them without breaching the law for underage magic?"

At that he had pointed at a big terrine behind them, one that Molly used very often to keep soup hot in.

"This thing has a fairly standard warming ward on it. See those little runes painted on the edge? Well, those are all you need, really. Just draw them and poke them with your finger to charge them. The smaller the distance between runes the hotter the temperature."

Hermione's face gained a crooked grin as she saw the tall ginger look fondly at the kitchen utensil, she felt like there was an excellent blackmail story behind this.

"And just what is the reason that the combination of underage magic and runes makes you think of this dish?"

Blushing a deep red, the young man had finally admitted that he had crafted those runes himself when he was sixteen to surprise his mother, and Hermione had laughed out loud at his mortification, patted him on the head like one would do to a small child, and studied the runes closely, committing them to memory. Bill had felt like a toddler. He was ten years older than the girl for heaven's sake, and she had talked to him like she was his grandmother!

When some days later, he saw her drawing the exact same runes in the dirt around the girls' tent on the world cup campsite, he had shared a smile and a wink with her, only to blush in mortification once more. Unfortunately for the two young people, a certain Charlie Weasley had drawn his own conclusion when he witnessed the event without knowing the full story.

Hermione still smiled fondly at that last bit; Charlie had come up to her later that day, grilling her for information about his brother's apparent infatuation with her. She had shuddered to think what the twins would do if they had heard this conversation, so she had quickly changed the subject into dragons, and it had actually been fun, Charlie sure knew a lot about them.

She tried to remember the last bit of that conversation, she had a hunch that it was important. Charlie had been excited about something, about being in England for some weeks because of his work. Apparently he could hardly ever take multiple days off to visit his family, and there was never need for dragons in his homeland, but this year he'd get to transport a couple of them to Schotland in… November?!

Hermione's musings were interrupted however when Fred opened the letter and announced that it was sent by Charlie.

"Didn't you send your letter just before breakfast?", she wondered, with a suspicious frown. This seemed to prove her theory, and she didn't like it. The rest hadn't caught on yet, though.

"Yeah, why do you ask?", Fred asked.

"Well, hardly an hour passed since then, Charlie isn't a particularly fast writer, and he may be back in the country, but we are in the middle of nowhere, the only place within an hour's flight is Hogsmeade, and the owl came from the opposite direction."

Everyone but Hermione stared at where the owl had come from, the Forbidden Forest.

"So? You reckon he's hiding in the Forest or something? Why'd he do that?"

"Well, remember what he's here for? Over the summer he did mention something about having to transport three 'pretty bloody damn mean ones', his words, not mine."

Cedric was the first to make the connection, and his face went ghostly pale.

"Three dragons, three champions. Merlin's beard, you can't be serious…"

Hermione gave him a significant look. "Don't think I like this one bit, but it is part of the competition so I'll have to deal with it. I'll need more information, the sort of dragon I'll have to face and such. We must find them."

"We can't just search the entire forest, it's way too big!", Harry exclaimed, remembering his detention in first year.

"Charlie will be where the dragons are though, so we'll just need to find him.", Hermione retorted, unfazed.

"And just how do you plan to accomplish that?", Cedric wondered with narrowed eyes, liking this situation less by the second.

"I'll give you a hint: we'll need this owl, some brooms, a letter addressed to Charlie and a piece of rope."

"You do know just how bloody fast owls can fly, right?", Ginny asked, thinking this was a rather subtle way to remind Hermione how she was not quite bloody fast on a broom.

"Obviously, that's why we'll be tying the owl to a broom." That earned her appreciative glances from the three pranksters.

"Well, let's do an inventory check. I know that Harry, Cedric, Fred and George have a broom readily accessible?" She continued as the four boys nodded. "When going into that Forest, I'd rather have safety in numbers, so are you all in?" All nodded this time. The twins glared at their younger sister a bit, but she had already confirmed before they could say anything. "Harry has the fastest broom, and is the best at fancy flying, so he'll take the owl. I don't trust the twins with anything, so Fred and George, if you could share one of your brooms, then Lee could take Ginny with him on the other, and I'd go with Cedric. That all right?"

The twins made some mock hurt gestures at the lack of trust, and Ginny blushed at the idea of sharing a broom with the tall handsome friend of her brothers, but all seemed to agree. They quickly dispatched to fetch brooms and address a piece of parchment to Charlie.

* * *

"Merlin's sodding beard.", the male members of the expedition party uttered in unison when they came upon the first dragon. Hermione didn't even have it in her to scoff at them for their language, she would have said the same if she could speak.

"It must be a Hungarian Horntail.", she murmured softly after a few moments.

"How can you tell?", Lee wondered, as he shielded Ginny with his own body. The redhead appeared quite annoyed that he thought that she needed the protection, but was at the same time delighted that he would give it to her.

"It looks like the meanest monster that could ever walk this earth, and they're Hagrid's favorite dragon breed, so there must be some sort of connection."

"Quite right.", the twins said in unison, knowing the friendly groundskeeper well.

"Damn, I think it heard us!", Harry said panicked as the dragon growled loudly and torched some trees.

"Don't worry, Horntails are just like Fluffy.", Hermione said calmly.

"They have three heads too?", Harry squealed in a high voice.

"No, it falls asleep to music. That's why Hagrid mentioned them actually, Fluffy and Norbert once came up in the same conversation."

"Hagrid really shouldn't be allowed to name animals…", Ginny murmured, trying to distract herself from the likeliness of imminent death.

The beast turned its head around to look at the teenagers, and stared right at them.

"Sooo…", Harry managed to get out, "Anyone brought an instrument or something? Because I think we're about to become dragon dinner!"

"Don't be silly!", Hermione scoffed.

"Yeah, it's only noon, we'll be lunch, not dinner!", Ginny yelled at her former infatuation, her voice breaking over the words in nervousness.

"No, who would need instruments? We can sing!", Hermione sighed in exasperation.

"We can't!", Ginny and all the boys except Cedric said in unison.

Hermione just sighed again and dragged Cedric forward. She drew a deep breath and started on a simple Irish folk tune, 'The Raggle Taggle Gypsy'. When the dragon promptly relaxed and started wagging its tail, Cedric felt secure enough to join her, his deep baritone voice joining her soprano in unison. It was a cheerful song, though the lyrics were quite dramatic, the song described a lady who left her lord for a gypsy. By the time the singers got to the dialogue between the lord and lady the dragon had already fallen asleep, but they had such fun that they carried on, Hermione singing the lines of the lady, Cedric the ones of the lord.

So enthralled they were with each other that they only noticed the fourth redhead approaching them when a twig snapped beneath his boot.

"So Granger, see you got over my big brother rather quickly?", Charlie Weasley said, rather coolly.

"I have no idea what you're talking about.", Hermione replied, honestly confused.

"During the summer the two of you were blushing and smiling at each other all over the place, and now you're clinging onto that fellow, whoever he is!", the redhead growled with a ferocious glare at Cedric's arm that he had slung across Hermione's shoulders.

"There never was anything between us, I merely found out something about Bill that he considered highly embarrassing, and he remembered our conversation about it when he saw me at the campsite. He blushed out of embarrassment, I smiled out of vindictive pleasure, and you merely misinterpreted the signs.", Hermione calmly stated, grabbing onto Cedric's hand before he could retract his arm because of the glare.

"Did you find this embarrassing thing of his in the bathroom?", Charlie asked, almost eagerly, ever happy to have something to tease his brother with.

"No!", Hermione yelled in mortification. "For heaven's sake no, I merely learned where that self-warming dish came from."

Charlie sniggered, understanding it now. "Ah, I remember when he made that thing, mum insisted on showing it to every neighbor within ten miles and doted on him forever. He was blushing so often that he seemed sunburned, couldn't wait to get back to Hogwarts that year. Still mortifies him, that story. And to think I've been badgering the poor lad for months about crushing on schoolgirls…"

"Hey, nothing wrong with badgers!", Cedric said hotly, ever the loyal Hufflepuff, whatever Hermione's theories about the sorting hat were.

Hermione smiled at the now friendly Weasley in front of her. "You won't let him know that you found out, huh? You'll just keep badg- PESTERING him about it, to annoy him?"

Charlie grinned back crookedly. "How did you get to know me so well? Of course, I'll draw this out for at least another month, and then I'll go back to BADGERING him about that dish thingy." After this his friendly face turned serious though. "But now, let's discuss what you're obviously here for, dragons. Naturally I know you're in the tournament, Hermione, and judging by the job you did on that Horntail, this task will be a piece of cake for you. You'll need to know the breeds though, and I can't tell them because of an oath I had to take. However, I don't like the idea of you seven running around here, so I'll let you borrow you this pair of binoculars for a moment, right?"

"Thanks Charlie, I'll owe you!", Hermione answered him with a brilliant smile, taking the binoculars and lifting them to her eyes. She peered at the dragons while the twins related how they had found the place to their older brother, who laughed raucously at the tale.

"Let's see… The one furthest back is a Chinese Fireball, that one's easy.", Hermione said after a moment.

"Funny definition of easy you have.", Lee remarked, and Ginny nodded, still standing with him.

"Hah! The Fireball is very much a dragon version of Ronald. They're lanky, red, and think with their stomach. Confront them with some spicy chicken roast, and they're at your mercy.", Hermione retorted smugly, and Charlie burst with laughter at that.

"That's how I got my job, actually. Most dragon keepers can't cook to save their lives, but I learned the necessities from mum, so when I mentioned that during my job interview they took me on immediately. I got promoted really quickly because I handled the Fireballs so well."

"Yeah, ickle Charlesie always had more luck with dragons than with women…", George muttered under his breath, and as Charlie cracked his knuckles, Hermione quickly interceded.

"Anyway,", she began rather loudly to gain the men's attention, "The other one is a Swedish Short-Snout, and those have very sensitive senses because their natural habitat is caverns in the remotest part of the Alps, so I should be able to shoo it away with a good lumos maximus, or some sort of sonic spell. Could make it mad too, I suppose, so I'll just hope to get another one, and make sure to have enough snacks nearby to summon for the Fireball."

"Sounds like a plan.", Charlie nodded, "And a good one at that. It may be the most ferocious one, but you'd actually have it easiest with that Horntail I guess, with that golden voice of yours." The dragon keeper added a cheeky wink to his last remark, earning a growl from both his brothers and a slightly louder one from Cedric.

The four Weasleys chatted a bit more amongst themselves, catching up on how the rest of the family was doing, whilst the others collected the brooms and such and readied themselves for departure.

"We really should be off now!", Harry called out after when they were done, just as the male redheads started an interrogation of their little sister on just how cozy she was with Lee Jordan, something that made the tall boy extremely nervous. "We'll have to smuggle the brooms back before dinner, and the teachers might become suspicious due to our absence."

With those parting words, they all said goodbye and took off, back towards the castle.


	4. 4 - Slytherinical Plots

Muhahaha, Malfoy won't like this chapter. I hope you, my reviewers especially, do like it though.

Nicxy, Lisia, Chained2love, Hellcat-Sakura, Sparrowflyaway, Spence Reid and two Guests, cookies and chocolate to you all.

After some deliberation I must agree that Cedric is probably better as a friend than a boyfriend. I mean, they've been having little kitchen expeditions and the like for the better part of four years, and there still is no 'spark' or whatever, so it probably won't come. And I thought up a rather clever plan to get Hermione closer to Bill, and it seems such a waste not to use it… I'll let her take Cedric to the Yule ball though, but only as friends. Naturally Krum and Ron will be making scenes at that revelation.

By the way, one review said 'Hermione is in 4th year', probably because I mentioned her being fifteen last time. At that I remind the anonymous guest who said so that she has her birthday in September, so she'd already be fifteen at that point.

As a celebration of passing the 10.000 words mark I decided to share what I consider the three most annoying spelling mistakes commonly appearing in fanfiction with you. Which is indeed not much of a celebration, but all I could think of for the moment, for nasty stuff is going on around me, and I am quite depressed.

3 Quite/quiet (This is the one I see most.)

2 Scared/scarred (Really, how can someone have sexy scares all over his chest?)

1 Runes/ruins (Whilst ancient ruins are absolutely fascinating, it seems a shame to dedicate an entire subject to them when there are also runes to be studied.)

Also, I'm not really impressed with people mixing up he/she in the more frisky scenes of an M-rated story. Guess that's one advantage of slash stories, you can't get it wrong then.

And yes, I know that my English is by no means flawless, it is my second language after all. I am also aware that I can simply choose not to read fics with bad grammar if it 'annoys me that much', which is what I usually do. Guess I just wanted to point it out, so that people may pay more attention to what they write or something. Ugh, I'm such a bloody perfectionist…

Anyway, enjoy the chapter, and I don't own any of the Harry Potter stuff, neither did I in the previous chapter where I forgot to add a disclaimer.

* * *

**Chapter 4 – Slytherinical Plots**

_**Surprising Champion**_

_By Rita Skeeter_

_Many expected the rising Bulgarian quidditch star Victor Krum to end up as champion for his school. Nobody thought twice about the talented partial veela Fleur Delacour representing the French delegation. Yes, the big surprise of last night was Hogwarts' school champion Hermione Granger, a fourth year muggleborn witch of barely fifteen years old._

_Circumventing the complicated wards that stopped minors with a simple levitation charm any first year could have done, miss Granger showed us the extremely useful ability to find an easy solution to a difficult problem. In addition to getting her name into the infamous goblet, she was then chosen over older and more experienced students to be the Hogwarts champion. This makes me, and all our dear readers along with me, wonder what she will do during the tasks…_

After that, the article went on and on about all Hermione's accomplishments. About her support of the Boy-Who-Lived, about her intellectual prowess, about her subtle beauty. She had expected the inevitable article to be positive of course, her threats had seen to that. What surprised her was how factual it was. None of her various attributes were blown out of proportion, except for the beauty thing perhaps. However, the article listed everything, meaning absolutely EVERYTHING positive she had done.

Yes, somehow Rita Skeeter had found out about the inter-house study group she had raised in her first year, that was nowadays attended even by the neutral Slytherins like Daphne Greengrass and Blaise Zabini. She also knew that Hermione had talked Cedric Diggory and Percy Weasley into raising such a group for their years, and that it was now a school-wide tradition of which nearly everyone had forgotten that the bushy-haired fourth year was the instigator. Skeeter also mentioned the brochure Hermione had written after her first year, containing all those little essential details that wizards forgot to mention to muggleborns when introducing them to the wizarding world, that was now standard issue for every muggleborn to enter Hogwarts, which had been Hermione's intention. What she had never expected when writing the thing was the amount of gold she had later received as compensation, and she was eternally grateful that Skeeter either didn't know about that or was to decent or scared to mention it.

This article had come out in the Daily Prophet the day after the champions were chosen.

Hermione had liked seeing all her achievements listed off like that, especially the non-Harry related ones, for the people who had scorned her before could hardly claim anymore that she was just 'Potter's external brain', as had pretty much been her reputation to those who didn't know her.

She hadn't wanted to seem conceited however, so she'd just said: "Do you think I'll get my own chocolate frog card now?", and her friends had laughed and patted her on the back.

Even weeks later, reading the article never failed to lift her spirits, and she seemed to need that more and more lately, so she had attached it to the inside of the cover of her homework planner with a sticking charm, and added a notice-me-not charm to keep people from finding out.

Between Ronald's lasting animosity and the jeering of most of the Slytherins, her mood still grew progressively worse though.

As time went by, Hermione also got more and more nervous. Finally, it was two days before the first task, and she was a wreck. She was more moody than professor Moody himself by then, and just to top it off she was having her period, which she didn't like at all because dragons often did odd things when they smell blood.

Her gloomy musings were temporarily interrupted, when Cedric approached, one of the few girls Hermione actually enjoyed talking to behind him, her eyes red-rimmed and her face desperate.

"Susan, what happened?!", Hermione immediately asked, jumping up from the Gryffindor table, for this was Susan Bones of Hufflepuff.

"Oh, Hermione, it's horrible! I just can't bear it… I can't even think about it! The… The contract…", at that, Susan simply broke down, unable to explain further.

Hermione patted the girl's back soothingly and looked at Cedric with an expression that clearly said 'what in the world?', so Cedric explained.

"It appears that there exists a dormant marriage contract between the Malfoy family and the Bones family, and that Malfoy senior decided to activate it on behalf of his son. Susan will have to marry Draco, unless there is a valid reason not to, which there is of course, but I thought I'd give you the honor of saying it."

"Yes, surely, it's only fair after all, because our threats were probably what made Malfoy so anxious to get Draco hitched in the first place. We'll give her the full story."

"T-there really is a way out?", Susan asked hopefully.

"Yes, erm, how to say this… Remember that one time when a unicorn got a bit overly friendly with Malfoy during Care of Magical Creatures? No, of course not, you don't even take that class…"

"WHAT! Malfoy and a unicorn? He's… I mean, she's…", Susan stuttered, trying to repress either hysteria, sobs or laughter. Probably the latter one.

"He's a she. Quite right, yes."

Susan flung her arms around Hermione's neck.

"Oh, thank you! When Cedric said he knew for a fact that you had a solution, I thought he was just trying to placate me, but this is just wonderful!"

"Hey, always happy to help out a fellow 'Puff!", the boy said with a wink, a wink that Hermione didn't like all that much.

"Hmmm, it makes me wonder though… I'd have to check some laws, but that can be done in the library…"

"Hermione, I can see that Slytherin spark in your eyes again, just what are you planning?"

"You'll see, if this actually works it'll be brilliant! But first I must know, Susan, the Bones family is of approximately equal standing as the Malfoy family huh?"

"Yeah, pretty much. The way the Malfoys are second in wealth only to the Blacks on the traditional Dark Side is much like how the Bones' are second only to the Potters on the light side. We're both small families, Draco and I are both the only heirs of ours."

"That's great, the court will take you seriously, and that git won't be able to bribe his way out."

"Bribe his way out of what? And what court?"

"Well… Say that in the contract, you stated really explicitly that your marriage to the little ferret is meant for procreation, that the prime goal of it is to continue both your families. Then both you and them sign it, and your family gets quite a load of gold as a bride price. But, all of a sudden you notice something odd about Malfoy, and he turns out to be a girl, unable to have children with you. You'd be able to break up the contract, get to keep the bride price, and perhaps even drag some sort of additional compensation out of it. Hey, if you charge for line theft or something of the like you'll get even more, and there's more than enough ground for it! This could make you really wealthy, and it would cripple the Malfoys immensely, seeing as all the influence they have was gained by bribery."

Everyone went slack jawed at this, and as especially the Weasleys cheered heartily, Hermione was extremely glad she had put up some privacy charms before the conversation got personal.

Susan nodded thoughtfully. Her aunt, by whom she was raised, had taught her well in the ways of wizarding politics.

"The old laws say I could stake a claim for half his earthly wealth. As traditionalists, they'll have to go with it, or else they'll lose their credibility."

"Does the term 'earthly wealth' include liquid assets, or just gold?", Hermione asked, Slytherin spark returning in full force.

"Everything! Once upon a time it even included the unmarried females of the family, but that was changed about two centuries ago.", Susan affirmed, curious as to where this was going.

"Ah! In that case you should make sure to get his family mansion as part of your share."

"What good would that do?", George wondered.

"Just hear me out! Offer him that if you get the mansion, you'll make the trial confidential information, that way his public face will be saved, even if he no longer has the gold to back it up. Then, as he starts planning a social dinner, he'll realize that he needs the mansion for it, to keep up appearances. That's when he'll try to buy it back from you, but you won't. You'll offer to let him rent it, but at a ridiculously high price of course. Make sure to get a watertight contract and an oath on his magic though, he is a slippery one."

"Yeah, Malfoys have lived in that mansion for nearly a thousand years, everybody'd be suspicious if it changed hands.", Cedric said, well aware of the finer nuances of pureblood society.

"Hey, you should put something in that contract about not being allowed to change the interior, and then paint the walls red and gold!", Fred added, ever the prankster, and everyone cracked up. Susan's tears were long gone, she had now a determined steely glint in her big brown eyes. She knew this plan would work, it was perfect. And all thanks to her brilliant Gryffindor friend.

Susan looked the friend in question squarely in the eye, and said with great sincerity : "You're getting a cut out of the profits though, Hermione. You saved my life, or at least my sanity. It doesn't bear thinking about what I would've done when forced to marry that creep."

Hermione tried to decline, but finally gave in when she realize Susan wouldn't budge. Damn that Hufflepuff sense of fair play.

* * *

"So, will your parents be coming over to see the task?", Susan asked later that day, still in high spirits. "I heard from someone that the champions' parents are allowed to."

Hermione snorted derisively at that. "Sure they're allowed. The PUREBLOOD people who organized this little get together failed to make arrangements for non-magicals to get here though."

The surrounding people took a moment to process this piece of information.

"That's just bloody nasty!", Lee Jordan finally commented, voicing everyone's thoughts. He had been sitting next to Ginny who was sitting next to Hermione, the twin's friend seemed to be hanging out quite a lot with the young redhead lately.

"I quite agree, but there's nothing to be done about it.", Hermione sighed sadly.

"At least there's a Hogsmeade trip tomorrow,", Ginny tried to cheer her friend up, "that'll keep your mind off this mess if nothing else."

"I still think it's sad and unfair that you won't get to see your parents the day before one of the biggest moments in your life though!", Susan said with a scandalized look on her face, and Hermione smiled at the girl in silent thanks for her support.

"Yes, I would've loved to see them, but I've given up. Unless…", an ominous twinkle appeared in her eye.

"NO! Take cover, it's the Slytherin Spark again!", Cedric yelled, earning some odd gazes as he scrambled away.

"Oh, be quiet ickle Ceddy-Teddy-Bear. You are a prefect, you should know the rules regarding Hogsmeade quite exactly. So tell me, is it allowed to go somewhere else once you are in Hogsmeade?"

"Erm, just how did I come to have that particular nickname?" It seemed to be the only part of her monologue that he had heard.

"Lavender Brown came up with it, don't ask me why. Now just answer my question will you?", Hermione said with a stern face, crossing her arms.

"Yeah, I guess. Don't think they bothered making up a rule about it, because they wouldn't expect anyone to go somewhere else."

"Hah, just what I thought! Now about transport. You are of course of age, but you haven't passed your apparition test yet, have you?"

"No. Portkeys are out of the question too, you'd have to get them approved by the ministry. Perhaps you could floo over from the Three Broomsticks?"

"Muggle house, remember. It isn't hooked up to the floo network." Hermione felt her spirits dwindling once again.

"Charlie!", Ginny suddenly said. "He got all chummy with you once you sung that dragon of his to sleep, if you asked I'm sure he'd be willing to meet you in Hogsmeade and apparate you over!"

"Dragon?", Susan enquired.

"Forget you heard that!", Hermione, Harry, Cedric, Lee and the three Weasleys immediately yelled.

"Of course! I wouldn't have said a thing, even if I didn't owe you big time for the Malfoy situation!"

Hermione sighed in relief, glad that she could trust the girl. Sure, Hufflepuffs were supposed to be loyal, but according to her theory they were just closet Slytherins, so naturally she had some reservations, even if she did genuinely like Susan as a friend.

"Guess I'll be writing some letters then, enlisting Charlie's help and informing my parents of the whole scheme.", she said as she got up, her initial bad mood all but gone now. Life was good again.


	5. 5 - Shadows from the past

(A/N)

Whoa, my fastest and longest update yet! Don't expect me to indulge you this way too often, I just got it done quickly because it's weekend, and I was really enthralled in this chapter. I planned to keep it on hold for a day or two to make my updates evenly spread, but since I'm quite far with the next one already I figured it made no sense to deprive you of this.

Time for the customary thanks to my reviewers: Annaea3077, Hellcat-Sakura, Sparrowflyaway, my great appreciation as always.

So, some comments on the story.

I'm worried that I'm making Hermione seem too perfect. She appears to be some sort of miracle on legs now. She is beautiful, capable of everything, and even sings well. That is not true, you'll find out what her limits are in this chapter and the next one, in which she will finally face her dragon.

In Dutch 'Bill' really does mean 'Buttock'. Or rather 'bil' with only one l, but whoever cares about that difference, it sounds the same. When I was nine years old and first laid hands on one of the Harry Potter books, I couldn't help giggling like the childish child I was because of it.

By the way, remember that wand holster well, it'll be important later on.

Oh, and I thought I'd hold a little election as to what Draco's female name will be, for she'll need one soon. I do want it to be a variation on 'Draco' though, because her behavior will become rather OC soon, so I want at least her name to resemble the real thing.

Dracolie (sounds a bit too much like broccoli if you ask me)

Dracona (my personal favorite, I think)

Whatever variation you prefer

Anyway, disclaimer&enjoy!

* * *

**Chapter five – Shadows from the past.**

_Dear Hermione,_

_Of course I'll help you with that little problem. I think it's grossly unfair that the purebloods are so petty against muggles. I mean, you're the star champion, you're all people talk about anymore these days. Surely they can't be so blind that they don't see that this mistreatment of you will come back to bite them once you are minister of magic or whatever it is you decide to do later?_

_Anyway, meet me behind that secondhand bookstore down the main road at 11:30, even if this is legal I think it'd be better not to let anyone know, though of course you already thought of that. By the way, you'll want to bring that Cedric guy of yours with you, you'll know why when you get there._

_See you tomorrow!_

_Charlie_

* * *

"Wow, he must be in love with you or something, Charlie never writes more than three lines.", Ginny said slightly amazed as she beheld the letter Hermione just opened.

"Oh, be serious you insufferable girl. He can't be in love with me, we had perhaps three conversations in our lives, and never without company. Also, he wouldn't ask me to bring Cedric if he planned on ravishing me in a bookstore or whatever."

Ginny just wiggled her eyebrows. "He probably just wants you to bring Cedric to eliminate his competition. I mean, he's already going to meet your parents and all."

Hermione giggled. "Are you quite that desperate to get me as a sister-in-law?"

Ginny didn't even try to deny it. "Of course! But now to be serious, you ARE quite a catch, even if I don't swing that way."

Hermione just shoved her best female friend of her bed where they had been sitting.

Ginny was right though. Not about Charlie being in love with her, but about her being quite a catch. She had a very expressive face, with those trademark big brown eyes. As one of the oldest in her year, her figure was quite mature already, and it was a sight to behold. Also, she was really graceful. She managed to hide that bit quite well by dragging loads of books along, but that had gained her so much muscle mass that she could now walk gracefully even when carrying a 'normal' schoolbag, the equivalent of half her usual bookload. Last but not least, becoming a champion had given Hermione a kind of quiet confidence that seemed to draw people to her, her happiness made her radiant.

That however, was only what she had in the looks department. She was talented, friendly, very helpful, and had a wicked sense of humor. More and more people finally seemed to notice the true her lately, and Hermione found herself the recipient of lots of male attention especially.

Consequentially, that was what had given her the habit of opening her post in her dorm room, because she had received some pretty embarrassing love letters as of late, which brings us back to Hermione, Ginny, and the oh so fascinating subject of Charlie Weasley.

"I still say he likes you. He obviously hated Cedric for being so close to you when we went to see the dragons."

"Nonsense, he thought I was cheating on Bill or something of the like, remember!"

"So, do you like Bill?"

"… Ginny! …"

* * *

"You sure he'd be here?", Cedric asked, looking around the deserted back alley behind the bookstore.

"Yes, the letter said so. Reckon he's disillusioned himself or something though, it'd be quite suspicious for a burly guy covered in burn scars to be hanging out on his own behind a store.", Hermione answered, her hands shoved deep into the pockets of her thick trench coat.

"Ah, constant vigilance and all.", Cedric grinned, acknowledging her point, and indeed, a familiar redhead became visible as a charm was lifted. Behind Charlie however, another familiar redhead appeared.

"William! Now there's a pleasant surprise.", Hermione said heartily as she stepped over to shake his hand, patting Charlie on the shoulder in the process.

"Why do you call him 'William', 'Mione?", Charlie enquired curiously. "I've noticed you do so before when addressing him, but not when talking about him.

"NO! I'm not calling a grown man 'Bill' to the face, and that's the end of it!", was her heated retort.

"Why then? You must admit it's a bit strange…", Charlie frowned.

"Yeah, why!", Bill exclaimed, for the matter concerned his name after all.

"Ugh! Never thought I'd be explaining this to you, but are you aware of what 'Bill' translates into in Dutch?"

"No.", the three males said collectively.

"It means… It means… Ugh, this is so irrational!"

"What does it mean, sweetheart, surely my name can't be that bad, whatever language you translate it into!", Bill said with a lecherous wink and Hermione Blushed.

"Buttock.", she mumbled quietly.

"Didn't catch that!", Bill said teasingly.

"She said buttock. Honestly, your name means buttock.", Cedric said befuddled, and then burst into laughter along with Charlie. Bill looked dumbstruck.

"At least that explains it then.", he sheepishly said

"Not why she only refuses to say it when you're there!", Cedric exclaimed between gales of laughter, rather unhelpfully.

"Oh, so you find it perfectly OK to talk about me as 'the buttock-boy' behind my back, but you call me 'William' when I'm there to hear it?", he said miffed, and Hermione looked ashamed.

"Well, it's quite commonly accepted as a name, so I have no trouble using it as such. Only, when I look you in the eye, I just can't bring myself to…", she trailed off in mortification, and now Bill too joined in the hysterical laughter.

"Oh, just apparate me over to my parents' place like you're supposed to!", Hermione huffed, and Bill took pity on her.

"Okay, but I get to take the young lady with me, for wee Charles here has been known to apparate onto little old ladies occasionally, and we wouldn't want to have that happening to you!" He hardly gave her time to think it over, he just grabbed her by the waist, spun her around and disappeard.

"No offence, but would you mind having to content yourself with holding on to my arm?", Charlie asked Cedric once their eyes had processed what they had seen. Cedric didn't even dignify this with a response.

* * *

"So sorry we're late, messer 'n madam Granger, your daughter was just explaining some Dutch etymology to us and it was really quite fascinating!", Charlie said cheerfully.

"Ah, Hermione!", her mother cried as she hugged her daughter. "Your letter didn't say that your delegation would be quite this big." Kill that wink, kill it with fire! "So, who are all these fine young men?"

"Cedric you know already. The others are Weasleys, brothers of that infernal Ronald. The lanky one's William, the smaller one Charlie.", Hermione said, embarrassed.

"Oy Bill, we give up our free afternoon to play escort, and then she's calling you lanky! However should we punish her?", Charlie guffawed, he always enjoyed teasing the younger girl.

"Well, it somehow didn't seem polite to describe him as the fellow with longer hair than his baby sister!", she swottily retorted, and Cedric and Charlie guffawed.

"Hah! I think it looks quit fetching, don't you Hermione?", Emma Granger grinned as her daughter attempted to sink through the floor. Mr. Granger just frowned, as if to say "Don't encourage her!"

Bill shuffled closer to Hermione and bent over to mumble at her: "You face down Death Eaters thirty to one without a second thought, but you'll let your mother walk over you?"

"Don't you then?", she hissed back with narrowed eyes, "Our mothers are menaces, they are just alike!"

"Merlin forbid you ever become a mother, it'll be a sight to behold.", Bill muttered as he straightened up, thinking she wouldn't hear him, but she did, and elbowed him in the ribs sharply in retaliation.

As they averted their eyes though, they both thought about that fateful day when Hermione had faced down Death Eaters thirty to one without a second thought. It all began that summer, when the Weasleys had miraculously acquired enough tickets for the quidditch world cup to let her come along.

* * *

They had been partying, celebrating the Irish victory. Then they had been sleeping. Now however, they were preparing for a fight. Mr. Weasley was delegating the underage people away, telling them to go to safety, whilst he and his eldest sons would help the ministry contain the riots, for Death Eaters had apparently decided to have a little party of their own.

Hermione saw Bill fumbling with the straps of his wand holster, and went over to help him. She loved that holster. He had the same one as Charlie, because the dragonhide came from a dragon Charlie had slayed, and the protection runes on it, including some that made the thing invisible when strapped on, were Bill's handiwork. The one disadvantage was that it had to be strapped to the arm, something one couldn't do with only one hand available. She gladly helped the tall young man though.

As she did so, Hermione felt a bit like a soldier's sweetheart, one of those girls with a boyfriend in the navy who straightened her lover's uniform before she kissed him goodbye at the pier, watching his battleship sail away.

As she tied his long hair back for him, she wondered just a bit too much how it would feel to run her hands through it. Soldier's sweetheart, eh? She blushed, and looked around if anyone had noticed her preoccupation. There was no one to have noticed, though.

"Damn!", she swore, quite unlike her, as she panicked. "The others must have left already!"

"Don't worry, there will be at least someone we know about to get you to safety, stay with us and you'll be alright.", Bill quickly reassured her as he signaled for Charlie to flank him as he opened the tent.

There was no safety to be found however, for the Death Eaters were nearly upon them already. They were perhaps seventy meters away, thankfully they hadn't spotted the three young people yet. Ever the Gryffindors, Bill and Charlie immediately wanted to charge the threat, but Hermione had a better idea.

"LISTEN! 'hind that tree, 't will be more help, YOU MUST SEE REASON!"

She grabbed them both by an ear and threw them to the ground behind said tree before extracting her wand from her pajama sleeve.

"They see us, we're gonners. No flashy hexes, they'll know where to look then. Tripping jinx, simple and invisible, they'll fall all over each other, understand?", she didn't even wait to see their nods, she just continued on the same breath. "Charlie start left, William start right, I'll take center, count of three, one, two, THREE!"

It was a good plan indeed. The ominous movement of the black-cloaked gang was what made it scary, but vulnerable too, because if the front line were hindered, those behind it wouldn't be able to stop. The tripping jinx was perfect to function as such a hindrance, because it was stealthy. Easy too, even half the first years managed it whilst it obviously wasn't taught at Hogwarts. Hermione mentally thanked Fred and George for teaching it to her, something she'd never expected to do, as she nailed down some more men and had the satisfaction of seeing them land on each other in a rather compromising position.

All in all they were doing well. The no longer orderly Death Eaters were a confused mass of black cloth, and the muggle captives had managed to escape after falling down softly on their abductors.

Bill and Charlie pegged down adversaries left and right from either side of the tree, and Hermione was merciless against the rest. At one point she managed to get a clear enough shot to summon the wand of a fallen Death Eater. The guy had been up front, so he was able to climb to his feet again. Drawing a spare wand he conjured a protective shield that sadly deferred any further tripping jinxes, so he got away, and Hermione was forced to elbow Charlie in the side to keep him from using visible spells. Luckily the dragon handler understood that it was more important to detain as many of them as possible than to barge after one lone escapee.

"Summon their wands if you can, 't will stop 'em more effectively than any stunner!", Hermione managed to get out as she now started casting with both wands at the same time. That was tricky business. It was extremely difficult to begin with, but she surely had the cranial capacity for that, her brilliance had no limit. Her power had a limit though, and that was troublesome. The second wand conducted her magic well enough, but still drained her more than her trusted old one. She also had to cast with her left hand, which she wasn't used to, and which again took more strength.

In her opinion the risk was worth it though, because the Death Eaters went down like dominoes. Due to her superb aim she soon had a stack of wands in front of her, and the enemy went into a frenzy. In the end, the last one with a wand managed to create a portkey, and as all the revelers were physically connected in the body heap, they all went with him. They flashed away the instant that Hermione slumped against Bill in total exhaustion.

As the threat vanished, both young men drew deep breaths. Charlie got up first, probably because he didn't have a girl half in his lap, and signaled for his brother to take care of her as he went to check if all was really safe.

Bill saw the ghostly pale girl next to him, the two wands in her hands, made the connection, and immediately yelled: "That was a stupid, STUPID thing to do!"

"… Worth it…", was all Hermione could mumble in response.

"Don't give us that crap! You are more important!" Bill had heard horrible stories about what could happen when someone used multiple wands at the same time, especially when they hadn't used them before, hadn't practiced this, or cast too many spells in too short a time, all three of which Hermione had just done.

"Permeating my eardrums…", she mumbled through Bill's rant.

"What?", Bill said, now confused.

"Speaking too loud… Gives headache."

"Oh.", he said sheepishly and scratched his head. That's when Charlie finished his round, the younger Weasley brother assumed a protective position a bit away from them however, and Hermione endeavored to speak again.

"William, the Death Eathers' wands… Burn 'em or break 'em. You know wand lore: no wand ever works as well as the first one to choose you, this'll cripple the sodding idiots...", her sentence drifted off uncompleted as she fought to keep her eyes open.

Charlie and Bill nodded at each other, it was really smart of her to have thought of that. Bill levitated the pile of wands, minus the one Hermione still clutched in her hand, a few feet away and hit them with a blasting hex. Charlie incinerated the leftovers with an incendio, and Bill tried to free the fugitive's wand from Hermione's grasp.

"I'll hold on to this one, works reasonably well for me, always a good thing to carry a spare.", Hermione mumbled, thinking of the man she had taken it from, how he'd escaped because of his spare wand.

Upon hearing this, Bill undid the wand holster she had helped him fasten before.

"Take this then, it'll hide the wand for you, for this would surely be frowned upon." He now fastened the holster to Hermione's arm for her, and she stuffed the wand into it. "Don't worry, I'm on your side.", he added, he practically murmured it into her ear. Luckily Charlie didn't notice that last bit as he was still standing guard, checking the area.

Finally deciding that all was safe, Charlie had gone to fetch some strong tea from the thankfully still standing tent.

As Hermione drank some of it, her head cleared a bit and she tried to sit up straighter. Bill helped her, relieved that she didn't seem to be in mortal danger anymore.

"Nobody can know.", were the puzzling words she uttered as she took another sip.

"Beg pardon?", Charlie said, sitting down on the other side of her.

"About our actions, or at least my involvement in it. I'm already muggleborn, if word about this gets out I might as well paint a target on my forehead if Voldemort comes around once more.", both young men flinched at the name, so she added with a derisive snort: "And your mother would go berserk, grow up boys!"

They flinched even worse at the mentioning of Molly Weasley, causing Hermione to laugh. Bill didn't mind his mortification all that much anymore suddenly, he was just glad to hear the girl laugh again.

Charlie however jumped up.

"Damn! Mum will be in a right state as it is. We really should get word out to her that we're all right, she must be pulling her hair out right now. You done with that tea? 'Cause then I'll pack the tent up and go ahead of you, bear the brunt of it and all, that way she won't disturb 'Mione too much when you go back."

"Sounds like a plan.", Bill agreed, glad for some reason that he'd be the one to bring her back.

"Take all the time you need, you shouldn't take risks now!", Charlie yelled from over by the tent, summoning the teacups, putting them back, and then magically packing up the tent. He slung the pack over his shoulder, gave his brother a pat on the back, Hermione a kiss on the cheek, and apparated away.

Bill and Hermione sat in silence for some moments, until she spoke.

"Suppose we'd better get our story straight, if we want to survive your mum's third degree."

Bill nodded. "Guess your plan will be better than mine, what do you reckon?"

"By the time we get there I'll probably be unconscious. Say the combination of stress, adrenaline and sleep-deprivation overcame me."

"You're delegating all the lying to me! It's unfair, that woman raised me, do you know how easy it is for her to see if I'm lying?" Bill's protests were futile though, for Hermione had already fallen asleep on him.

"Damn it!", he muttered, gathering the girl up in his arms, preparing to apparate them.

* * *

Never in his life had Charlie Weasley been afraid to enter his childhood home. Never in his life, up until this moment. Might as well get it over with…

Upon entering the Burrow, Charlie was pretty much hugged to death. Death eaters he could handle, with Hermione to keep him from doing something stupid, that is. His mother and baby sister though? Not a chance!

"LET ME BREATHE! Mother, ugh, I'm fine! 'Mione saw to that. Let me explain!", with great effort, and the twins' aid, he managed to extricate himself before he suffocated.

"Bill and I were preparing to go fight the idiots, but suddenly everyone was gone, not a person around except that horde of Death Eaters. We charged at them of course, but Hermione literally dragged us back by the ear, probably saved our lives by doing so. Then those Death Eaters trip all over each other, guess they were drunk or something. Anyway, the front row went down and the rest fell all over them. Then they portkeyed away, just like that. No harm came to us." Charlie sighed as he sat down.

"Where are Bill and Hermione then?", the twins demanded with narrowed eyes, they were really protective of the girl.

"They are coming after me, she's a bit undone, and with her being underage transportation is an issue. She never apparated, not even side-along, and I don't know how wise it is to do so with her in that state.", Charlie said, trying to stall for time. Immediately he realized his mistake in phrasing it like that; he mentally prepared for the outburst that would follow.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN IN THAT STATE?!", all inhabitants of the house screamed, they could probably have been heard at Hogwarts.

"Calm down mother!", Bill hushed, leaning into the doorframe, Hermione asleep in his arms.

"Everything just got a bit too much for her.", Bill said, and then calmly related the well-rehearsed lie, quite convincingly because he managed to avoid everyone's eyes by putting Hermione down on the couch, and tenderly brushing her bushy hair out of her face.

Charlie and Bill looked at each other. They thought they had known the girl, thought they'd already seen why their five younger siblings praised her so highly. During one short week they had talked wards, talked dragons, joked around, teased each other. The boys had readily acknowledged the girl's massive intellect, they had come to appreciate her personality.

That day however, they thought they had seen a part of her that only they had ever seen, a part that on the one hand would calmly calculate how to take down as many men as possible, but on the other hand would stand by her friends no matter what and risk her life with ridiculously advanced magic to help them out. They shuddered to think what this girl might get up to once she got a bit older.

* * *

Somehow nobody had seen that intense gaze that Bill and Hermione exchanged in the hallway of the Granger residence. Not even Hermione's mother, for which she thanked Merlin over and over again.

She quickly recovered, shooed her parents and three male companions into the living room, and offered to make tea for the whole lot.

The rest of the afternoon passed pleasantly as Mrs. Granger tried to decide which of the young men to set her daughter up with. Cedric was reliable, a steady friend, sweet and cute, and any young girl's dream boy. "If I were thirty years younger…", Emma thought to herself, glad that her husband couldn't read minds like some wizards apparently could.

The dragon tamer was nice and funny, but a little too boisterous and simple-minded for her Hermione. That curse breaker though, what a stunning piece of man that was! He was intriguing, mysterious, but open and friendly all the same. And so wonderfully ruggedly handsome…


	6. 6 - Dealing with Dragons part two

(A/N)

It's raining. Hard. Honestly, there's water EVERYWHERE IN SIGHT. Ugh. But thankfully there are my lovely reviewers to brighten my day: Hellcat-Sakura, Nicxy, Fool's Tutor, Sarah, Arabella Lee Smith and an anonymous guest.

I like that plan Fool's Tutor has for Malfoy. I always planned for him/her to end up on the light side, I just don't know yet how to bring it about, I have several half-developed strategies on my mind.

It's a good thing too to include Justin by the way. Hermione will get a load of her fellow muggleborns on her side once they find out why she decided to compete in the tournament, they'll want to help her make their situation better. I already planned to get Penelope Clearwater into the equation, that muggleborn girlfriend of Percy's, but I won't have a chance for that until the Yule ball comes along. That leaves Justin for now, and Colin and Dennis Creevy, and Dean Tomas and all those. When thinking up Harry Potter stuff I tend to concentrate on my favorite characters, and forget about the rest, which seems to have happened now. They'll get in when the time is right though, because at the moment Hermione isn't ready for a fully fledged uprising yet, she'll first have to finish the tournament and establish the right position and the like.

I won't pair Justin up with Hermione by the way. He'll be good friends material, but I always figured Hermione'd be happier with a guy at least a few years older than her, someone with some modicum of maturity, and guess what? I've finally decided that it'll be Bill. You know, I'll add him as the second character in the story details once I have this thing posted. Oh, I already have the scene in which he confesses his love written out, it's such a shame that so many chapters have to go first… I just want 'em to hook up already! But yes, they'll have to wait. They'll be together before her fourth year is done though, they'll know how they feel about each other, but they'll take it slow until she's at least of age, so don't worry about any untoward situations.

Oh, and before I forget, Hermione didn't get in trouble with the ministry for that stuff at the world cup, because there were loads of wizards around, nobody could tell the magic was hers. It's the same as when Harry DID get in trouble because Dobby used magic in his house, they just supposed it'd been him, though they SHOULD have investigated the case. Don't know if this is how Rowling meant it to be, but as she never explained it I guess I'll just have my little bit of fun with it.

So if you'd now just imagine a disclaimer here…

Enjoy the story!

* * *

**Chapter six – Dealing with Dragons part two**

The day of the first task arrived. Hermione got up bright and early, took a shower, and looked for her clothes. She had decided to wear a simple muggle training suit, she had acquired it the previous day, when she was in the muggle world anyway. Simple tight-fitting black jogging pants, and a long-sleeved purple shirt. Hogwarts' colors, but muggle style. She had charmed the back of the shirt to say 'Granger – Hogwarts', and at Fred and George's insistence put a big, roaring Gryffindor lion on the front.

Thus dressed, she enlisted Ginny's help to braid back her hair, which she didn't want obscuring her vision today, and to strap on her wand holster with her spare wand. The younger girl frowned at the holster, it seemed vaguely familiar. She made no comment though, for she was preoccupied completely with the first task that would be later that day.

Ginny appeared to be more nervous about it then Hermione herself. She hardly ate, whilst Hermione consumed a substantial breakfast and lunch. Cedric raised an eyebrow at that, usually she was the one that had to be reminded to eat. She just shrugged, as if to say 'just setting a good example'.

The morning quickly passed, and halfway through the lunch professor McGonagall appeared to take Hermione to the arena.

"You are the pride of Gryffindor, miss Granger. Give them your best!", the old woman said slightly muted, as she shoved her star student into the champions tent where no others could follow.

Hermione was delighted to get the Hungarian Horntail, she'd have to go second, after Krum with the Chinese Fireball. Fleur would be last with the Swedish Short-Snout. She actually snorted when Bagman told them that they'd only have to get the golden egg the dragon protected, rather than fight the beast. Her two fellow champions didn't seem to find is as funny though. And now they'd have to wait for an hour before the task began.

* * *

No people except champions were allowed to be in the champions' tent. However, nobody had thought of prohibiting written communication with outsiders. Hermione had mentioned this to her friends the day before, and sure enough, a charmed paper airplane flew towards her. She folded it open and read.

_'lo Mione,_

_What's the verdict?_

_Good luck!_

_- Cedric_

Quickly Hermione extracted a muggle pencil from a pocket, and scribbled a note on the edge of the piece of parchment.

Unfortunately for Hermione, Ludo Bagman peered over her shoulder as she wrote. He had severe gambling debts with the goblins, and in an effort to repay them he had bet against the goblins that Victor Krum would win. The Bulgarian however looked pale and nervous and spend his hour eyeing up Hermione's behind, which looked quite fetching in the tight jogging pants. The girl looked confident, like she knew she was going to win this. And as he saw the short message, Bagman understood why.

_Don't worry, just got to get an egg, summoning charm will suffice._

_Tell the rest hi._

_- H_

Bagman cursed himself for his bad luck. The little chit would win, and he would be bankrupt. There was only one option left, but he'd have to convince Crouch… He made his way over to the man.

"Barty! The muggleborn plans to just summon the egg, we can't let that happen!"

Barty Crouch nodded, it would make the purebloods look stupid.

"Indeed! Malfoy's gang would never accept it!" If only he had known that Malfoy would lose all his influence before a month had passed. He didn't know that however, so he was quite ready to accept Bagman's plan, which the chubby man explained to him.

"There still is time. We can have a warder put protection against summoning on those eggs. Where has that Gringotts guy gone, the one that warded the arena?", Bagman asked.

"Alas, he left when his job was done." Crouch felt his hope dwindle.

"Right, he's one of those Weasleys too, they're close to the girl, he'd probably kick a fuss."

"Damn, those Weasleys are everywhere these days!", Crouch said as he remembered that his assistant was one too.

Bagman left a dramatic pause before introducing his plan.

"We could just SAY that there are protections on it, whilst there are none. They have no reason not to believe it."

The two men exchanged a grim nod and went outside to announce the first champion.

* * *

"Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the first task of the Triwizard Tournament, here at Hogwarts! Our three dear champions will have to face a mother dragon each, to get from within her nest of eggs the golden egg that contains a clue for the next task. Don't you worry, the arena is warded very well both to keep the dragon in and the spectators out. It is also warded to stop magic from outside, so that the champions can't cheat by letting outsiders help them, they are on their own! A champion can gain a maximum of fifty points, of which points will be deducted for injuries, or if the other eggs get harmed. First up is the Durmstrang champion Victor Krum, and his dragon is a Chinese Fireball. Wish him luck! By the way, the eggs are protected against summoning and levitation charms, for those would make the task a little too easy of course. Now let's…"

Hermione wasn't surprised by that last bit. She had noticed Bagman reading her note, which she had actually written to test him, and she expected him to do such a thing. She was surprised however, to find out that he had managed to get the eggs warded so soon, it would have taken at least half an hour to engrave all those runes.

"Therefore,", she thought, "this is probably a farce. He just pretends to have warded them to keep me from annoying his little club of bigoted friends.

It didn't matter though, because she still had her flawless initial plan, singing the Horntail to sleep.

Hermione walked confidently into the arena, almost gloating. Krum had taken his time beating the Fireball, and gotten some eggs smashed too. She'd do better!

The Hungarian Horntail looked sort of happy as the young girl approached, apparently it recognized her and looked forward to hearing her voice again.

Contrary to Charlie's opinion, Hermione's singing wasn't all that great. Sure, her voice sounded quite exquisite, but she couldn't pull of any high notes or keep up with complicated melodies. She was smart enough to accept this though, and therefore stuck with Irish folk tunes, which had simple steady melodies and were easy to sing. Because of this tactic, a lot of people were jealous of her voice, never knowing that she could hardly sing at all. The dragon surely didn't care.

What she sung now was no Irish folk tune though, in honor of her house she had decided to sing 'The lion sleeps tonight'. Behind the horntail, in the staff section of the stands, she saw McGonagall wiping tears out of her eyes at this display of house pride.

Sure enough, before the first refrain was done, the dragon laid down its head and snored, puffs of smoke emitting from the nostrils as it snored. Only now did Hermione raise her wand, clear her throat, and calmly she said: "Accio golden egg!"

She was very smug to see that it worked indeed.

"Hah!", she commented, "Guess those wards were faulty then!" This way nobody could say that she openly defied the organization, just that she tried to test the protection, although everyone clearly saw that she meant to defy them. Bagman and Crouch shifted nervously in their seats.

* * *

As Hermione exited the arena, Charlie appeared next to her.

"Great job!", he yelled in her ear as he gave her a quick hug, and once more handed her his binoculars with a wink.

"With them you'll be able to see that pretty veela better.", Charlie grinned, looking forward to the chance to see the goddess-like woman in action.

"Hey, unlike you, I don't ogle veelas! Especially not female ones!", she huffed as she grabbed the binoculars and stomped off towards the stands.

Hermione had just reached the stairs as she heard cheering and Fleur entered the arena. She looked around, and immediately realized that something was seriously wrong. It took her a moment to identify what, but then she remembered that Swedish Short-Snouts are known for their incredibly sensitive senses. They reacted disproportionally heavy to small stimuli. Including veela charm.

Few people understood what they were seeing, those who did wished they didn't. The dragon broke free from its shackles, and pounced on the French girl. She stood not a chance; her veela charm might have given the Short-Snout the impression that she was, but she was no female dragon, and thus not able to withstand the… attentions of her suitor. Her body was ripped apart, the ground was bloody, the sky went dark.

Hermione tried to block out the sounds around her and think. It was hard, many people were screaming.

"Non! Ma Fleur, ce n'est pas vrai!", two French women, Fleurs mother and sister?

"We can't let her die, it'd look bad in the papers!", probably Crouch.

"That crazy dragon is on the loose, we can't lift the wards! Then the whole audience'd be torched!", someone who actually knows what he's doing, that could have been Charlie.

She hardly knew the girl. That didn't mean that she could sit by and let her die though. Deep down Hermione knew she should be able to solve this, and she knew for a fact that she would never sleep soundly again if she didn't give this her best. Therefore she resolved there and then that she would do all she could to save her fellow champion.

"Harry's saving people obsession must have rubbed off on me.", she idly thought as she studied the runes on the barricade through Charlie's binoculars.

To her surprise they weren't all that complicated. She knew more about wards than your average fourth year of course, but these were easily decipherable for her.

"Simple but strong.", she thought, and there lay the problem. She may be brilliant, but in terms of magical power, she wasn't really special, so breaching the ward by overpowering it was out of the question.

For the first time of her life, Hermione cursed being muggleborn, for in a way the purebloods had it right, they generally were more powerful than muggleborns. What they conveniently forgot though, was that they only got that power by intermarrying with magical creatures, which they discriminated against even worse than muggleborns.

Fleur had her veela heritage, which got her to be school champion, for apart from that she was a rather average student. Professor Flitwick had been a dueling champion in his youth, powerful because of his goblin genes, and even Hagrid's status as half-giant made him powerful enough to use magic with a broken wand.

Hermione on the other hand, probably descended from some long-forgotten squib line, was only moderately powerful on the best of days.

"Whatever Granger, you have a blonde bimbo to save, so you'll just have to do it with brains rather than bulk.", she muttered to herself. What an encouraging pep talk it was.

She considered her options. She couldn't just levitate the body out, not even if she flew above the arena to circumvent the spell nullification ward, for the movement would jostle Fleur's spine in a likely lethal way. She couldn't just blast away part of the barricade too, that would break down the entire ward rather than just the ward that stopped people, and thus release the dragon. At that she checked over the order of the runes again.

Yes, this was it! Whoever had warded the arena hadn't bothered to make the enclosure repel living things in general as was common, but specified it to only stop humans and dragons. It was a bit harder to set up, but took about five times less power, it's what she herself would have done.

"Bill.", she thought, that must have been why he was there yesterday.

This was something she could work with. The wards were too tightly interwoven to take down one whilst keeping the other up, but she could make minor alterations to the runes without even having to recharge them. The people ward was defined by a trail of protection runes alternating with the rune 'Mannaz', the rune for man. That one could easily be changed into Ehwaz, the horse rune. As a horse-repelling ward was similar in intent as the one in place, and there was little chance of any horses having to get into the arena, she could just blast away those two diagonal lines that distinguished a Mannaz from an Ehwaz on every rune. Every rune in a four feet area at any rate, she'd only need a gap wide enough to get Fleur's body through and enough time had been spilled already.

"Make way, I've got this!", Hermione gruffly commanded, and the bystanders actually complied without making a fuss.

Altering the ward was a meticulous job, but precision work had always been what she did best at, so she pulled through without too much trouble, and quickly ran into the arena.

Fleur's body looked, if possible, even worse by then. She was probably beyond saving already, but Hermione didn't like thinking about that, rather she concentrated on saving what could still be saved.

She got to work as if possessed. Blocking the rampant dragon's eyesight with a blindfold she conjured around its head, she managed to calm the beast down somewhat by removing Fleur from its view. After that she drove it away with the sonic charm she had decided on all those days ago when she first set eyes on the animal.

The danger hadn't passed yet though. The dragon threat may have been eliminated, but Fleur was still suffering. Hermione kneeled down and did what she could, which wasn't much. She knew that the girl would probably bleed to death in a matter of moments, so she started with that. She knew a spell that knitted arteries back together and used it. This didn't repair any tissue damage though, and it was the only healing spell she knew, so she attempted a stasis spell. This would have been too dangerous before, because a person with so many wounds could still bleed when in stasis, but now it was safe. Problem was, Hermione didn't know any medical stasis spells. She knew a rather crude one that was commonly used on food though, and decided to use it, because all was better than nothing.

Luckily, that's when the cavalry arrived. Bill, who'd had to go back to Gringotts after warding the dragon arena, was thankfully still in the country and had been called back immediately when the dragon went rampant. He quickly figured out what Hermione had done to the wards and sent his brother Charlie through the gap to calm down the dragon, and madam Pomphrey to help out with Fleur. He himself frantically worked to make the gap wider, until the school nurse had managed to put a more sophisticated stasis charm on the veela and get her out of the arena.

* * *

"Too little blood, she won't make it!", the nurse said sometime later in the hospital wing.

"There are blood replenishing potions you know.", Snape said sarcastically.

"Doesn't work on partial veela you idiot!" For once Snape didn't react to the comment, but focused on finding a way to heal up the champion.

"A blood transfusion?", the hook-nosed man wondered.

"Don't know, we'd have to be quick!"

"I volunteer.", Hermione mumbled hardly audibly. Abusing the stasis spell to work on a human body and making it strong enough had taken its toll on her. The moment the arena was vacated, she had collapsed, and Bill had only just been fast enough to catch her before her head hit the rocks, he had barged in the second he got the other people out. As she lay unconscious in his arms, he'd had to carry her to the hospital wing, where he'd deposited her on the bed next to Fleur's and sat down next to her, taking her hand.

"Won't go through all that trouble to have her die now, I know the risks, just do it already!", she added, extricating her hand from Bill's and thrusting her arm forward.

The medical personnel didn't waste any more time, they just got her shirt off and whatever else she had on the upper half of her body, including the wand holster with the spare wand.

Snape frowned at the last object, the wand in the holster seemed vaguely familiar to him. He didn't have time to ponder either that or the gorgeous half naked student on the hospital bed though, for he had a school champion to save.


	7. 7 - The Aftermath

(A/N)

First of all – when I began this fic I thought it was the only one around with Hermione as a triwizard champion. Imagine my pleasant surprise as I found out yesterday that there is in fact another one, 'Hermione Granger and The Triwizard Tournament' by Nala Moon (who has, by the way, been so nice as to write a review). It's great, you should read it.

Then to my other reviewers, flyingberry, Hellcat-Sakura, Rosemary Lily Marie, Guest and Fool's Tutor, my everlasting thankfulness, and to your comments the following:

Yes, the dragons are nesting females, and I realize now that they aren't all that nice to their eggs in my story. The book said that Krum's dragon smashed her eggs though, and with the other two this seemed most appropriate. The Horntail recognized Hermione, it sort of felt safe with her. The Short-Snout's senses are so enhanced that it gave a kind of kid-in-a-candy-store effect when Fleur walked in trying to bend it to her will with veela allure. Not the best plot perhaps, but it fitted best with what I had in mind.

And yes, Hermione and her merry band of followers will probably have a good laugh over suspicious gaps in family trees from purebloods soon. The idea is: interbreeding with humanoid magical creatures (veela's, werewolves and the like) is acceptable, interbreeding with other ones not, and inbreeding with family members is worst of all. Dark purebloods seem to insist on doing the latter two on a regular basis, and are thus repulsive. I'll probably make Dracona (or whatever her first name is) Malfoy a representative for the whole thing.

Sooo, the new chapter. It gets me past that 20.000 words milestone! Never thought I'd even get there when I started writing this two weeks ago. Has it really only been two weeks? Well, cliché as it sounds, reviews DO make me write faster ;-) Funny thing is, when I get reviews, I post more reviews too for some reason. But my ranting is not what you want to read of course, you just want to get to the chapter, eh?

Not all that much action in this one, just talking and drama and more talking. I hope you'll still like it. Bill goes berserk, he was apparently a little more infatuated with Hermione than he let on. Charlie and Ginny find out and decide to become 'helpful', by lack of a better word. Oh and don't worry, Hermione won't become some sort of all-powerful being all of a sudden, she'll just be on equal footing with the rest from now on.

* * *

**Chapter 7 – The Aftermath**

"She's waking up! Get the nurse, quickly!", someone shouted, Hermione didn't bother trying to recognize the voice. She felt like she had died twice over and then eaten by a crocodile with bad table manners. She hoped that all had at least not been for nothing, that Fleur had been saved.

Magical blood transfusions were crude, really crude. Basically there was this spell that temporarily connected two people's bloodstreams, and that was all. There was no physical connection, the blood just sort of accumulated and then flowed through both people's veins, it divided equally between the two people. This meant a great risk for the donor, if the receiver needed more blood than the donor could give, both would die, as only one person's blood could be used.

There were more risks though, for many things could spread through blood. Diseases like AIDS. Afflictions like lycanthropy. In this case, Hermione willingly mixed her blood with that of a veela, and naturally this would have its consequences.

"Miss Granger, we are very sorry.", madam Pomphrey said as soon as she was sure that Hermione could hear her. "When you volunteered to give a blood transfusion, we were all so desperate that we temporarily forgot the side-effects of doing such a thing when the donor or recipient is not fully human…", the nurse was interrupted by her patient mid-rant.

"Don't, just don't. I knew perfectly well what I got myself into. I knew the risks. I know I'll share a part of the veela curse now, but I'll tell you this, I'd take it any day to save a life!" Hermione was surprised to find that her voice sounded perfectly clear. Her voice was usually rough when she just awoke, she should hardly have been able to get a word out after all she had been through. She supposed this was simply part of the veela curse, and hoped that whatever other veela attributes she'd acquired, the allure wouldn't be amongst them. Veela's were usually considered to have been blessed because of their beauty, but it really was more of a curse, for the allure practically made them social pariahs.

"Most peepel 'oud call eet ze veela blessing…" Fleur had woken too, apparently. She also sounded perfectly clear, the only vocal sign of her state the fact that her French accent was slightly heavier than normal.

"I do not. They should not. I gather you do not. Veela's may be beautiful, but women distrust them and men only lust after them. I'd much rather just be my buck-toothed bushy-haired self but live a happy life with friends and a man that loves me for myself than look pretty but have to fight of rapists at all hours of the day."

Hermione carefully turned her head to look the girl in the eye, and saw a perfect understanding there. The younger girl instinctively knew that this must have been what the older girl's life had been like, and that she wholeheartedly agreed.

"I will 'elp you, eef you 'ave trouble, I will 'elp you through!"

"Likewise.", was all Hermione could mumble before sleep claimed her again, but both girls knew that this was the start of a friendship that would last as long as their lives.

* * *

Seven hours passed before Hermione awoke again. When she did, a familiar redheaded girl was sitting next to the bed. Her name was Ginny Weasley. The moment her eyes opened, her guest started talking like there was no tomorrow.

"Cedric was all ready to just break the doors down, but the twins and Lee helped him out, and together they got in. They were kicked out immediately though. My other brothers stopped by as wel,", at that she hesitated with a frown.

"except Ron of course, he's still being a prat. Bill came too, brought you here in the first place in fact, they pretty much had to pry him loose from you, and since he could dissimilate the doorwards in a heartbeat, brilliant curse breaker that he is, they had to get him to swear an oath on his magic to keep out of here until you'd wake up. He's prowling about in the corridor now, almost like Snape, it's scary!"

Hermione flinched at that. She had thought a disproportionate amount of time about Bill ever since that day of the world cup. She didn't know him all that well of course, but her treacherous mind kept playing what-if scenario's that grew progressively more disturbing. She knew she was way too young for him anyway, so she'd planned to let some years pass, and then see where they stood once she wasn't a hormonal teenager that blushed at the sight of the closest living male anymore. Not that she was a hopeless teenager, she just had to blame something for those things she couldn't explain and decided to blame puberty. But now, if that blasted veela allure messed up her friendship and who knows what might have been with Bill, well, suffice it to say that she wouldn't be happy.

Ginny's monologue continued.

"Charlie came too of course, as soon as that crazy dragon was properly detained. Even Percy came! Crouch had summoned him to sort out some business with Fleur's parents, but he checked in on you too, I still don't see how you've remained friends with him for almost four years without being bored to death, but he seemed genuinely concerned. Oh, and Harry tried come see you, but he didn't get in, just like all your friends from the study group."

Hermione felt horrible. Pretty much every unclaimed male she was acquainted to had been barging in, probably fawning over her because of the thrice-damned allure. Even Percy, who she knew quite well from having him help her set up that inter-house study group in her first year, who had been dating Penelope Clearwater since his schooldays. She realized that Ginny had been allowed to sit with her, but that not a man was in sight. She supposed it was for her protection, to keep unwanted suitors off her body whilst she was helpless.

"Awww, Gin, you're giving me a headache!", Hermione managed to say. That's when the doors of the hospital wing burst open.

"When did she wake up? Why didn't anyone tell me!" Bill Weasley it was of course, he strode forward until the expression in Hermione's eyes made him stop.

"William, no!", she shouted, desperate. She couldn't take this, couldn't let anything happen this way, couldn't let the allure ruin everything.

"What?" He looked confused, depressed, utterly miserable, rejected even.

"William, just… Just go." Hermione cried bitter tears as she shook her head at him, gestured towards the door and buried her head in the pillows.

Ginny didn't say anything, just witnessed the scene in confusion, but then her face got a pensive expression that Hermione dreaded. No more could be said however, as the younger girl was sent away by madam Pomphrey because she had to run some tests on Hermione, to determine how much the veela blood had affected her.

* * *

Charlie was very confused. When he was told that Hermione had woken up, he ran to the hospital wing immediately, abandoning his lunch, only to hear her shoo his brother away, all upset.

Charlie wasn't as smart as Bill, and he didn't hold a candle to Hermione's brilliance. He was however reasonably perceptive, and good at connecting the dots, so to speak. He saw the gorgeous French veela eying up his big brother, only to suddenly flinch and grab her head, one of the few things that wasn't actually hurt in the dragon fiasco. Why was that? Charlie studied his brother, wondering if Bill had anything to do with it. Bill did nothing though, which was surprising in itself. Bill always looked so determined and confident, like everything he did served a purpose. Now however, he just stood in the doorway, like he didn't know what he was doing there himself, staring rather vacantly at… Hermione?

It was an odd stare, one Charlie had never seen his brother give anyone. It took him a while to decipher it, but finally decided on it being a mix between longing and mourning. The mourning part of it greatly intensified as his gaze drifted off to Hermione's nightstand, where a vaguely familiar object lay. The wand holster that had been removed from her arm. Bill's old holster.

Charlie blanched as he remembered an oath made long ago, when Bill and he first strapped those holsters to each others' arm. They had first wanted to swear to always keep them with them, but in the end decided to give them away, but only to their true love if ever they found such a person. That way they couldn't accidentally end up shagging each others' dream girl.

He remembered that oath, knew it couldn't be breached. Bill could literally only have given his wand holster to a girl he truly believed he'd spend the rest of his life with, and Charlie knew perfectly well who had it, Bill had handed it over to Hermione that day at the world cup, when she had wanted to keep a confiscated wand as her spare. He hadn't thought anything of it back then, Bill and he probably owed the girl their lives because she had kept them from jumping into the fray, and they were both thankful. It seemed a kind gesture to provide her with an undetectable way to keep that wand with her, it seemed the least they could do.

No, Charlie never before today realized the significance, but now he did. The question was, did Hermione? And what of the Diggory fellow she always hung around with? The twins and Ginny had said they were practically joined at the hip. She had clung to the boy and denied any feelings for Bill when they talked that day in the Forbidden Forest, but was that true, or didn't she want him to catch on? Charlie didn't know, but he knew one thing: Bill was madly in love with the young Gryffindor. He wasn't sure what would happen if she refused him, but he knew it wouldn't be pretty.

What to do? Charlie suddenly remembered the pretty veela with the headache. He knew she must owe Hermione a life debt, so did she get hurt for eying up Bill, because he was already claimed by her savior? Charlie could only hope so.

A determined glint crept into the young dragon handler's eyes, he couldn't let his brother get hurt, even if he had to resort to playing matchmaker. How he'd do that while wrestling dragons in Romania though… He suddenly had the answer, and actually said it out loud.

"Ginny!"

Charlie had been standing in the doorway with Bill, and Ginny had been walking toward them already. He beckoned her over, and dragged her off to a quiet corridor once she reached him.

"Whatsupbetweenthosetwo?", he asked, repeating it more slowly when his little sister stared at him uncomprehendingly.

"Hermione and Bill.", she muttered in confirmation. "There certainly is something brewing over there. Brilliant at potions as they both are though, they don't seem to be brewing this right. Perhaps we should stir a time or two before the ingredients expire?" Charlie looked awed.

"Wow, that's the most beautiful potions metaphor I ever heard. Snape should get you to revise that speech he always gives the first years!" Ginny giggled at that.

"Oh, be reasonable brother! Now, we must analyze the situation, see if there's something we can do.", she said.

"Aye, to business it is. Let's gather the facts, when have we ever seen them together?", Charlie said, all serious now.

"Well, you know that she stayed over with us for a week when the World cup was?", Ginny began, mentally assembling a report.

"Of course! I spoke with her quite a bit back then."

"Hah, you're not the only one! They were talking together all the time, discussing wards mostly, she really is a natural with them, helped Bill with some rune translations from his work even.", the female redhead summed up in an awed voice.

"Why did I never notice this?", her male counterpart spluttered.

"Charlie, you're one of those people who sleep 'til noon. It might surprise you, but some people actually wake up before then.", Ginny muttered exasperatedly.

"Really? But what would those people do all the time!", he said surprised, like he honestly couldn't believe such a thing. With a sigh the girl began to explain.

"Mum's always the first one up, makes sure there's food around for whomever is next to come down. Either Bill or me always used to be the second one, but by some sort of scary coincidence his timing is exactly the same as Hermione's; I know because I spied on them two times. It's creepy really. They'd always run into each other on the second floor stairs, because his room is higher up than mine which she and I shared. They'd come down together and sit at the table with some toast and coffee. She helped him with his hair too, I could hardly contain my laughter when I first saw her do that. After that they'd talk considerably longer than a breakfast is supposed to last. About random things from his work mostly, Egyptian hieroglyphs, rare runes and some sort of really advanced arithmancy, things I'll never understand. They spoke a lot about muggle history and literature too, she really seems to know everything."

"Yeah, and they're supposed to have talked about that dish he made for mum!", Charlie added triumphantly.

"Awww, I overheard that conversation!", Ginny went on enthusiastically, "It was so cute, he was all blushing like a schoolboy, and she just patted him on the head like he was a dog. It was brilliant!"

"I caught him blushing at her that other time too. She said it was only embarrassment though, when I asked her in the Forbidden Forest."

"Hah, that's what she may have said! His pants told me another story entirely."

"Jeez, too many details Gin!"

"Okay brother, we'll spare your innocent virgin ears the embarrassment. Got anything useful to share yourself? He did carry her back when she fainted…" Ginny seemed very curious about this, like she already had some vague suspicions.

"More stuff happened during the world cup. I'll need your witches' oath on it that you won't tell anyone though.", Charlie began, hesitating when he saw his little sister become angry.

"NO! This is not a matter of trust, this is a matter of security. If you promise to keep a secret, it can still be extorted from you with ligilimancy or veritaserum. If you swear to keep a secret, it can literally only be willingly shared."

"I'm sorry Charlie.", Ginny muttered, her face as red as her hair. "And I swear on my magic that I won't reveal the secret you are about to tell me without your express permission!" A faint blue glow emitted from the tip of her outstretched wand for a moment, confirming the oath.

"Okay, here we go.", Charlie said, took a deep breath, and explained the fight with the Death Eaters at the world cup. He figured Hermione wouldn't object to Ginny knowing, especially with the oath protecting the secret. After all, she had told Cedric under the same oath. She herself had sworn one too in fact, but a clever modified one, to not reveal the secret to a person she wouldn't tell when in full control of her mental capacity. She had made Bill and him swear that one too when she managed to pull them to the side for a moment before leaving for school, it would leave them free to tell people like Ginny, but still protected the secret.

"Ah, that would be why those 'drunken' Death Eaters were suddenly tripping all over each other. Always figured that story was a bit dodgy.", Ginny nodded, like an annoying little mystery that had been nagging at the back of her mind had just been solved.

"Let's just thank Merlin that mum never caught on.", Charlie muttered under his breath.

"That we should!", Ginny readily agreed.

"I should go back now though, the veela stuff is freaking Hermione out, she'll need my support. Of course she thinks saving Fleur was worth it all, but she fears the affects will mess up her life. If anything she'll need me to keep the boys at a safe distance."

"Would that be why she sent Bill away?", Charlie wondered. It had seemed odd to him. "She sounded so desperate, like she'd die if he remained within the same room. She was probably afraid that they'd lose their friendship if he'd jump her bones because of the veela allure."

"Yeah, brilliant as she is, she is prudish as hell. I'd be surprised if she'd even kiss someone before he got a ring on her finger.", Ginny muttered.

"Care to place a bet on that?", Charlie asked mischievously. Ginny thought it over for a moment.

"Yes, actually. Five galleons say so!"

Comfortable silence.

"We'll get them together. I just feel this is gonna work.", the burly dragon keeper spoke confidently after a bit.

"I know.", the girl confirmed, and walked off to the hospital wing.

* * *

It was the first moment of relative privacy that Hermione had been granted. All the visitors had been shooed away, Fleur was asleep, and madam Pomphrey was fetching equipment for the tests. Hermione was going to use this chance.

Namely, she knew that if she turned out to have become some sort of veela hybrid, she'd break down. And if she had to break down, she'd rather do so privately. Therefore, she had thought up her own little test.

_"I heard there was a secret chord_", she began to sing.

_"that David played and it pleased the Lord_

_But you don't really care for music, do you?"_

Those were the easy lines, those ones she could manage. It were the long-winded high notes she couldn't pull off. She sat up straighter, to make breathing easier.

_"Well it goes like this :_

_The fourth, the fifth, the minor fall and the major lift_

_The baffled king composing Hallelujah"_

The moment of truth. She imagined a guitar, a piano and a violin playing. And a cello, really low in the background. The perfect dramatic soundtrack for her little moment of glory or doom.

_"Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah!"_

Her voice broke over the first 'hallelujah'. What came out of her mouth in its stead was a horrible high-pitched wailing sound with too little air behind it. She could have cheered, had she had enough breath left to do it. Her voice hadn't been changed after all!

A grin spread over the entire width of her face, and for the first time since the dragon ordeal she regained some hope. That's when she noticed the nurse reentering the hospital wing, pushing a trolley full of scary looking metal objects that reminded her of her parents' dental practice.

"What's got you so happy, miss Granger?", the nurse asked puzzled.

"I can't sing, can't sing at all. It's wonderful!", the girl said, still smiling happily.

Madam Pomphrey just shook her head and checked the girl for fever.

"Must be a side effect of all those drugs.", she muttered to herself.

Half an hour later, Hermione never wanted to have a metal object of any kind in close proximity to her body again.

Fleur, who had awoken halfway through the testing process, had winced sympathetically at appropriate moments, and cussed in French whenever she felt like it. The older girl now held her savior's small hand for moral support, as the stern nurse was about to communicate the results. Ginny had been allowed back in for that too, and now held Hermione's other hand.

"Well, miss Granger, I guess we'll start with that what you seem to fear the most. You do have several veela attributes, however, the allure is not amongst them."

Hermione said not a thing. As the news sunk in she cried silent tears of relief, but not a word passed her lips. Ginny hugged her tightly, and Fleur, unable to do so too because she was still in a horizontal position, squeezed the girl's hand.

"Please continue.", Hermione managed to get out after a moment.

"It appears that you have veela skin now too. That means that if you are wounded, it won't leave a scar, as long as you get the wound properly healed. You see miss Delacour's wounds already sealing up nicely whilst any other person would still be a patchwork. Veela's don't have scars, their skin repairs itself harmlessly when damaged, because their magic won't allow them to be imperfect.

Speaking of magic, yours has probably increased in power. Knowing you, I assume you are perfectly aware of the effect of creature ancestry on wizardkind. This is slightly similar, I estimate that you are as powerful as most purebloods now, even though Fleur is only a quarter veela, and you only through her blood. We'll know more when you resume your classes."

Hermione couldn't believe her luck. She had never liked scars, especially once she learnt of the whole Harry Potter hype. Extra power was always welcome. She wouldn't be some sort of distrusted man-magnet! She seemed to have gotten all the positive aspects of being a veela, whilst escaping the worst. There had to be a catch.

"That's not all, is it?", Hermione asked resigned. She had a bad feeling about this. "Just say it."

"I, erm, explained it to the girls.", madam Pomphrey began. "They'll bring you up to speed, I, erm, got somewhere to be!"

As she all but ran from the room, the nurse muttered something that sounded suspiciously like "I'd rather not be present during THIS revelation!"

Hermione watched her two female friends as they stared each other down until finally, grudgingly, Fleur began to speak.

"Do you 'rmember what magical substance formz ze core of my wand?"

"Yes, a hair of your grandmother! What has this to do with me? Is my hair magical too now?" Hermione was horrified. Her hair had been magically annoying already, whatever else could be wrong with it?

"Not magical, non, zhat ees only with full veela. As zeir 'air ees so often stolen though, zey 'ave developed a defence, to 'ave it return magically, and zey do pass zhat on, to you too. Eet will always grow back, 'owever short you cut eet, eet will grow back reelly fast to 'ow long et ees now."

Hermione was relieved. It would only grow back if she were to cut it, it wouldn't do any weird things. Her hair may be bushy, wild and unattractive, but she liked it perfectly fine to at least have normal hair, and as long as she kept it at shoulder length like she did, it was quite manageable. Yes, as long as she kept it at shoulder length.

"Just how long is it at the moment?!", She enquired in a threatening tone. Ginny shuffled her chair away from the bed, and Fleur looked like she wished she could move too.

Hermione slowly turned around to face the reflective window. She didn't like what she saw. Her hair had doubled in length, it nearly reached her bum now, looked frizzy as ever, and Hermione already realized that it would be a dead weight to drag around on her head all day.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" She allowed herself to scream for nearly a minute, but reigned in her emotions after that.

"At least I don't have the allure.", she remarked soberly, attempting optimism. Her face fell however, when she remembered her panic attack about that particular issue, when she sent Bill away.

"What must he think of me now! How can I ever mend our friendship again?" She whispered it so softly that even Fleur and Ginny, of whom the first hardly understood English and the second still sat some distance apart, didn't catch it.


	8. 8 - Back to School

My lovely reviewers, Flyingberry, Angel897, Arabella Lee Smith, two guests, Rosemary Lily Marie, Mistra Rose and Kittykat, thanks once again.

Indeed, it seems odd that Crabbe, Goyle and Ronald are überpowerful or something, but at least in my story they are. They're just too bloody stupid to use it. Think of it like this: there's no use in attaching a little LED light to a huge turbine when it works just as well on a small battery. Hey, I can see Hermione quoting that line at some point in the story! Anyway, that's why halfbloods would be best off. The strong mixed-breed magical genes make them powerful, but the fresh human genes from the muggle world keep their brains more or less intact. There's always the odd exception, like Malfoy, like most Weasleys, but consider it a general rule.

Also, I don't plan to match up Fleur and Snape. I just gave him some naughty thoughts to make him seem like a general pervert. In fact, I plan to match Fleur with Charlie, they'll be working together on the get-Hermione-hitched-to-Bill front, which will give them a reason to spend time together, and we'll see how it goes from there on. I don't know if I'll give Snape anyone anyway, it just seems so like him to live 'till the end of his days brooding on his own. Beg pardon if I offended any Snape fans with that, I like him a lot too in most stories, all depends on how he's written, really. And his voice is great of course, you should see this video, in which he reads sonnet 130 from Shakespeare, it's kind of sexy in a disturbing way.

www . youtube watch?v=xP06F0yynic

(just remove the spaces)

Then, about the new chapter. It's a bit shorter than the previous ones, more like a link between the task and the Yule ball, for indeed, that madness will come in the next one.

I vaguely remember something from the books about Hermione being bad at the patronus charm, but I decided that she's good at it. And yes, it's a crab, it seems sort of a tradition in Hermione stories to think up a more suitable animal for her, so I decided to go with something original. I really like crabs though, I guess it might be my patronus if I had one.

And yes, she has a job now. All in all she's getting quite rich, she does the odd writing job, like that brochure for muggleborns, she'll get the prize money, her cut of the profits from the Malfoy case, and something else that will be mentioned soon. This way, with a steady job, a certain future, and a nice bit of back-up money, she'll be an independent woman when she gets out of school, that'll take a big burden off her back. Mr. Gingerwing will find out whom Ms. Scuttles is, but it'll wait at least 'till the summer.

Anyway, I'll just add a disclaimer now, before I forget it yet again, like last time. I don't own any Harry Potter related stuff, neither do I own 'Hallelujah', the song used in the last chapter. Wish I did, I love that song. I'm mostly into Irish folk, but for that one I happily make an exception.

PS: I made a cover for the story! And yes indeed, I just took a picture from the Yule ball and one from Bill's wedding and pasted them together in the 2003(!) version of Paint, but that's pretty much the limit of my computer abilities. First I tried to stick them together in one picture, but somehow Bill's arm ended up bent at a wrong angle all the time, so I got frustrated and gave up.

* * *

**Chapter 8 – Back to school**

"Curse breaker Weasley mentioned her before, she helped him out with some translations over the summer."

"Yes, together they solved in a week the Sheikh 'Ibada case on which a team had been working for half a decade, and they weren't even in Egypt."

"Ah, a stroke of genius that was. We can't let talent like hers go to waste, or worse, go to the concurrent."

"Sure thing, sure thing. But she is still in school, and will be for some years. How can we snatch her before she's snatched away?"

"That she is in school does not imply she cannot be of service. We'll ask her to become a consultant, to solve translations and such for a fee."

"That my friend, is a plan, and a damn good one."

Thus three goblins spoke. Three goblins that had come to the first task to pester Bagman about his gambling debts, but in the end laid eyes on something much more interesting: Hermione Granger. Whether building them up or breaking them down, William Weasley was Gringotts' ultimate specialist regarding wards, yet this fifteen year old school girl had been able to do as she pleased with some wards personally designed by him. They'd recruit her, train her, and with her at their side the competition might as well pack and go home. Tombs, pyramids, whatever, between Weasley and Granger, Gringotts would get them all. They'd just have to convince the girl first, easier said than done.

* * *

Over the last few days, Hermione had learnt to appreciate Harry's dislike for the hospital wing. Therefore she was immensely glad when, four days after ending up there, she was finally allowed to leave. Therefore she was annoyed when madam Pomphrey announced that she had three more visitors, and that after that, she could go straight to lunch.

"Who are they then?", she asked irritably, thinking that she was quite able to talk to them outside the hospital wing.

"People from Gringotts.", the matron answered, which surprised Hermione.

"William?", she mumbled, half fearful, she wasn't quite ready to face him yet. But no, it was not him, it were three goblins. Bigger than her surprise at that was her surprise at the proposition they made.

"A consultant job, really? I mean, I'm only a school girl…", she trailed off, hesitantly.

"Doesn't matter, you have what it takes."

"And,", one of the other two added, "if your work were unsatisfactory we'd happily fire you."

"It's starting to sound better.", Hermione admitted. It was starting to sound pretty good, actually. "There's one catch though: wouldn't your other employees have issues with having an underaged girl working alongside them? I know firsthand how petty men can be."

Hermione's mum was as smart as she was, and thus finished dentistry school at an early age, only to be scorned by her older male colleagues as a little girl in a men's world. Until she met the man that would be her husband, that is, he had been working as a dentist for some years already, and was just opening his own practice in which he employed Emma, only to marry her the same year. Together they'd build up a reputation admired and envied by nearly every dentist in the word.

With the medieval mindset of the wizarding world, Hermione truthfully guessed that gender bias would be even worse in here, and she didn't want to go through that like her mother had. The goblins didn't seem too concerned though, as one of them spoke up.

"They'll never know. For sake of confidentiality, our employees use aliases when owling each other, they sign with nicknames. You'll be an anonymous miss, nobody would ever connect that to a Hogwarts' student."

"They'll just assume you're a retired ex-employee who never had time to find a rich husband due to her occupation and therefore still keeps a little job to provide for herself. Not nice, but it won't matter."

Hermione was seriously considering the proposition by now. She just wanted to know one thing, and asked about it with mild apprehension:

"What would my nickname be?" She had always hated those. 'Mione' and 'Mia' she could live with, but 'Herms'? Seriously? Not to mention the stuff the Slytherins would think up, and that atrocious one Sirius insisted on calling her.

"Have you ever produced a corporeal patronus yet?"

This question threw her off guard, but of course she had. When Harry started learning the patronus charm, she herself had tried it too, and caught on to it even more quickly.

Defense against the Dark Arts had always been more Harry's thing, but she actually beat him at this bit because it was all about determination, and she had an excess of that. Also, most of her memories were a lot happier than his. Now, after a lot of training from professor Lupin, Harry could cast his flawlessly as well, though only if he noticed the dementors before they noticed him, which hadn't been the case at the end of their third year.

Hermione still gave an involuntary shudder when remembering that, she had never felt as hopeless as during that moment by the lake. She had successfully produced her corporeal patronus, but her magical power had been too weak to support it for long against the multitude of dementors. Sirius and Harry had passed out, and she had been quick to follow.

That's why, when Harry and she had gone back in time and they were hiding in the forest with Buckbeak, she ran up to Gryffindor Tower whilst disillusioned to fetch a little side project she'd been working on: rune-engraved bracelets that enabled two people to 'borrow' each others' magic. Using those, she'd been able to leech on Harry's greater power, and easily chased away the dementors.

Sirius had found this very amusing for some reason. Then again, he seemed to find most things amusing.

Anyway, back to Hermione's conversation with the goblins.

"Yes I have, it's a crab."

"A crab, really? That seems unexpected."

"Why not? They're small but tough. They're defensive by nature, but you don't want to be near when they try offence. Nothing wrong with crabs, I like them, really."

And she really did. As did Sirius when she told him, that day she met him, when he offered her and Harry to become honorary Marauders. He had claimed they needed Marauder nicknames, and immediately declared Harry 'Pronglet'. Hermione, anticipating an even more atrocious nickname, had declined, but Harry, the traitor, had mentioned the form of her patronus to Sirius.

Oh, if only Sirius hadn't reminded her so much of a pirate back then, with is wild black hair and beard. If only that hadn't made her say 'ARRR' to him. If only that hadn't made him tell bad pirate jokes. And if only, if only he hadn't combined that with her patronus' form into the nickname of ultimate doom… He had though, and Hermione had a feeling that it would follow her to her grave.

"You'll need a nickname related to your inner animal. Can you think of anything?"

Yes indeed, this was going to follow her to her death. She knew however, that she'd have to use that name given to her that day a few months ago. For one, Harry and Sirius would totally ostracize her if they ever found out she had refused to use it in such a situation, and for another, she really couldn't think of anything else.

"Scuttles. I'll be Ms. Scuttles.", she muttered grudgingly. The goblins just grinned their slightly disturbing grins.

"That is perfectly fine. Now, some more details about the job."

"Your stuff will be sent to you by our employee Mr. Gingerwing, and you'll send it back to him when it's done, he's your contact person.

"Gingerwing?", the girl repeated questioningly. Really, how many gingers did she know that worked for Gringotts? Right, one.

The goblin actually had the audacity to chuckle at seeing her face. "You might know him as William Weasley, our most promising curse breaker."

Great, just great. Only yesterday she had mortally wounded their friendship, and now she'd be working under him. On the other hand, she'd be using an alias, and she knew a spell to make her handwriting unrecognizable. She'd surely be using that one, and then he couldn't ever find out, could he? Still, she wouldn't just give in.

"Isn't it a bit diffuse to owl back and forth between here and Egypt all the time? It would surely be more efficient to have a contact person that works at the local branch, wouldn't it?" The goblins smiled those damned smiles yet again.

"Hah, but Gingerwing will be relocated after new year. He claims he'll be missing the tombs, but we refuse to let such talent go to waste."

"He worked here at the head office for the summer, and we concluded that he is of much more use inside the bank than doing grunt work in the desert.", the second goblin added.

The third goblin added his bit with a devious smirk and a wink at the girl: "Besides, he might just reconsider that statement about tombs when he's working with a pretty young consultant.

"Honestly!", Hermione cried mortified, "You're supposed to be employing me, not interfering with my love life!"

For a moment she thought she had busted it, that she had been too impertinent to them and that they'd retract the offer. Annoyed as she was at them at the moment, she didn't want that. She may be quite brilliant at pretty much anything except sports, but she had found that runes, arithmancy and the like were really her forte. Moreover, they were what she enjoyed doing most. Taking on this offer probably meant a lifelong job in that area, and considering her muggle heritage, it was likely the best she'd ever get.

Therefore it must have been her lucky day, the goblins didn't seem offended. One of them spoke again.

"You're taking the job then?"

Hermione nodded feebly. "I want an airtight contract and a privacy guarantee. Apart from that, just tell me where to sign."

* * *

Thus newly employed, Hermione finally made her way over to lunch, which had of course already started.

"Great!", she muttered, "Now I'll have to walk in while everyone stares at me!" She felt like she had a note stuck to her forehead saying 'Hello, I just gave the magical/medieval equivalent of a blood transfusion to a partial veela'. Well, nothing to be done about it, she might as well walk in with her chin up and her dignity intact.

She wore her usual unflattering school robes, but everyone remembered how her figure had looked in her skin-tight training suit, and it had been quite a sight. Her pretty face was clearly visible, because the unmanageable new length of her hair had made her tie it back, and it looked full of determination. All in all, she didn't look that much different than usual, but for some reason the male population seemed to think so, and she was mobbed as she entered the great hall for lunch.

Luckily her four friends from sixth year came to her rescue: Fred, George and Lee ran towards her from the nearby Gryffindor table, hexing everyone whose face they didn't like, and Cedric assisted them from the other direction.

After a moment Ginny was able to get through and drag Hermione off to the Gryffindor table, where Harry sat down with them, and scared everyone off with a threatening glare from underneath his dark eyebrows. Cedric deserted his own house table in favor of the Gryffindor one to support his best friend, he sat down with the twins, opposite Lee who had chosen to sit next to Ginny. At this Susan followed her fellow badger to the lions' den, soon joined by Fleur who'd come over from the Ravenclaw table when she noticed Hermione. After this entire fight and reorganization, the entire Hogwarts' population and its guests had their attention focused on the young girl, and she was quite desperate to move it away.

"So, Susan, how're you dealing with the Malfoy situation?", she asked conversationally, to break the tension, and everyone went back to their lunch. The other girl checked if there was really no one listening in anymore, and then smirked.

"Auntie is writing the contract as we speak, we're signing it this weekend!"

Hermione smirked back. "That's great, at least something is going right amidst all this madness!"

Yes, Hermione knew she'd face hardships in the future, but she also knew that she had great friends who'd stand by her, and with them on her side she'd be able to face it all.


	9. 9 - Teenage Hormones

(A/N)

Yay, yet another chapter done. I'm quite surprised I managed it at all, for it is Carnaval over here, a holiday celebrated only in the south of the Netherlands. It's a bit like Halloween, but the decorations and costumes aren't scary, just wacky. It once used to be some sort of Christian tradition, but nowadays it's more about consuming stupendous amounts of alcohol. I don't really join in with that last bit, but it still wears me out to be partying until early morning, so you should be grateful as I am to my encouraging reviewers that I got anything done at all.

Guest, Flyingberry, RebeccaRoy, Angel897, Rosemary Lily Marie and Tsukiyo Tenshi, thanks as always.

Then for your comments: yes, Voldemort will return. Probably before the third task even, but I don't have the details nailed down completely yet. I'll probably have him quickly defeated, with Hermione playing a key role in his downfall of course.

Oh, and I got this review that just said '...otter…'. I'm quite aware that this is Hermione's patronus in the books, I'm sure we all are. Therefore this comment can mean pretty much anything from a neutral observation up to 'What the hell are you doing making her patronus a crab while it's an otter?!', and I don't know what to do with it. Really, I love reviews, especially the critical ones because they help me improve my writing, but I like to at least be able to tell if I should take something as a compliment, as criticism, or whatever.

I'm glad you like my little nickname for Bill so much, by the way. I decided to make his patronus an eagle, for it seems fitting, and it's form was never mentioned in the books as far as I remember. It might have become a wolf when he was attacked by Greyback though, now that I think about it, it would make sense. But even if that's the case, that has not happened yet in my story, so I'm free to make it an eagle.

Then for the future. Bill will be back in the next chapter. I also plan to include something about how Crouch Jr. is doing, but I haven't found the right moment yet. I do know what'll happen to him though, you'll just have to be patient. And of course I have that nice little cliffhanger going on, so yes, Ron is going to kick a fuss.

But first this chapter. It's mainly talking again, a bit of planning an plotting too. Enjoy it, and I still don't own any Harry Potter stuff, except those mangy old paperbacks that I've read far too often.

* * *

**Chapter 9 – Teenage Hormones**

A month had passed since the first task, and Hermione found herself in the kitchens with Cedric once more. They were happily greeted by the house elves, which Hermione had learnt to appreciate rather than reproach.

When she first found out about house elves, during her first year, she had wanted to improve their rights and give them freedom and such. Cedric had been with her though, that first time she entered the kitchens, and he'd advised her to talk it trough with the elves first, which she'd done. That way, she quickly learnt that house elf magic was tied to their masters' magic, and therefore the elves had to be bound to be truly happy. She still wanted them to be protected against abuse and such, but she realized that she didn't have the political power to get something like that done. Therefore she had decided to concentrate on improving her position, for that way she could help her fellow muggleborns too, and creatures like goblins and centaurs, and werewolves, which had been added to the list last year when she found out about her favorite professor's 'furry little problem'.

Contrary to attempting to free them, this had gained her a steady friendship with many house elves, including the one that now handed her a bunch of chocolate goodies. He knew how she loved chocolate.

"So,", Cedric began, "how are you coping?"

Hermione thought it over for a bit. "Better than I expected.", she finally replied.

"The hero-worshipping is annoying, I understand Harry better and better these days. Being mobbed my hormonal teenage males is far worse, but Fleur has been great, and at least the hair's improving."

Indeed, now that it was longer, Hermione's bushy mop of hair had sagged out into lush curls due to the heavy weight. At first it had still been bad, because the constant strain on her head gave her horrible headaches, but after a while she discovered that she could put a featherweight charm on her hair, which made it a lot lighter and didn't even bring the bushiness back.

Fleur had been quite delighted, she tried a new hairdo on Hermione nearly every day, and the girls had become good friends between this and their daily fights with unwanted suitors.

For yes, the pretty hairdos had had a detrimental effect on Hermione's men issues. They just kept bugging her! Only that morning had she and Ginny been forced to hex Victor Krum into oblivion because he'd had the audacity to grope his fellow champion's butt. Due to his knowledge of dark magic, Krum had managed to sneak in a jinx or two to, therefore Hermione had been hit in the arm by a cutting curse, which meant she had to miss charms to get healed up in the hospital wing. She only hated him more for that.

Cedric flinched too, as Hermione mentioned her men problems.

"I get what you mean. At least my fangirls are too intimidated to corner me. Well, except Chang of course…"

Cho Chang was a Ravenclaw in the year between them. Being in another house and year, she hardly ever spoke Cedric, but apparently she considered it enough to make him the object of her teenage hormones. Consequentially, Cedric could hardly turn around a corner without being jumped on by the tiny Asian fifth year.

The worst thing was, as the victim was male and also older than the culprit, it wasn't considered molesting as was the case with Hermione, whose assailants were severely punished. Cedric reported Cho's behavior of course, and he deducted points as was his right as a prefect, but it didn't help. Suffice it to say, Cedric was not amused.

"You know, Ced, we're both being bothered by unwanted fans of the opposite gender." Hermione halted at that for a moment. "Scratch that, in your case there are some of the same gender too." Cedric made an odd spluttering sound, and blushed profusely. Hermione just snorted at that reaction.

Cedric thought he knew where his friend was going with this though, and now desperate to keep her from speaking again, he interjected: "You're talking about that blasted Yule Ball, aren't you?" He had read about the tradition in 'Hogwarts: A History' when he considered entering his name, and because dress robes were required this year, he didn't need Hermione to figure out that there'd be a Yule Ball.

"Always nice to know there's someone besides me who reads 'Hogwarts: A History'.", she remarked. "And indeed, I guess there'll be a ball, and I for one know that I don't want to have to reject hundreds of desperate males. I know they'll try anyway, but me having a date already might just discourage a few of them, and since as far as I know neither of us has someone special walking around inside the school…"

Cedric didn't speak immediately, he got down on one knee in front of her first before talking.

"Hermione Jean Granger, princess of Gryffindor house, champion of Hogwarts school, my best friend for three and a half years already and for many more to come, will you allow me to escort you to the Yule Ball, before Chang gets one of those chopsticks of hers in a place where I don't ever want to have an oblong wooden object?"

"Well, that last bit ruined the romance of it, but as it was pretty much me who asked you to ask me, I'll accept anyway.", Hermione giggled. The word 'romance' made her hesitate though. "Just… Cedric?"

"Yes, Hermione, my fair maiden?", he asked confused.

"Well, you know, we've been sneaking all over Hogwarts for more than three years. If that hasn't tempted us into a broom closet yet, I don't think anything will.", the girl mumbled, looking at anything but the young man before her. He however jumped up and engulfed her in a huge hug.

"Thank Merlin you're the first to say it! Ever since your first year, you've just become too much like a little sister to me, and I'm not really incestuously inclined. I guess we're simply better off as friends."

"Best friends!", Hermione confirmed in a resolute voice.

"Aye-aye, captain Scuttles!", he joked, knowing how much she disliked the nickname.

She heard it more and more these days, especially from Harry. At her insistence he wrote Sirius a lot. His godfather had returned to England upon hearing about the Death Eater mess during the world cup, but he stayed in London where he was fixing up Grimmauld Place with Remus. When Harry wrote about Hermione's alias which she used at Gringotts, he had sent them a picture of himself laughing, both to show Harry that he was looking a lot better than the previous year, and to inform Hermione of his reaction.

"Oh, just shut up, will you!", she huffed and stuffed one of her chocolate cookies into his mouth.

It was silent for a few moments, mainly because Cedric was busy clearing his mouth far enough to regain the capability of speech.

"So, my dear little 'Mione, there is no one special for you INSIDE the school?", he asked pointedly, once the last vestiges of chocolate were removed.

"Let's change the subject.", she said darkly. "Let's change it real quick. Let's change it to… I don't know, you think of something."

"Let's talk about your job!", Cedric agreed enthusiastically. Hermione looked relieved until he continued: "And those fiery red locks of your Mr. Gingerwing!" At that she just sighed. Mr. Gingerwing, a.k.a. William Weasley, gave her strange, sad feelings whenever she thought of him, which was the better part of the day, but mostly when she got letters from work.

That however, was the only downside of her job, apart from that it was perfect. The tasks she got challenged her, but she still solved them well in time. She got two or three of them a week now, as the goblins were very impressed, and it paid extremely well. She still remembered the first one fondly, and still had the letter that came with it:

* * *

_Ms. Scuttles,_

_This envelope contains your first case as a consultant for Gringotts. We need it solved ASAP, but within two weeks should be fine._

_The goblins dragged me back from Egypt a month early for your sake, so I suppose you must be good. I sincerely hope so, for at risk of sounding petulant, I did not want to leave._

_Anyway, all the details are inside, together with the notes from the guy who was working on this previously._

_Good luck,_

_Mr. Gingerwing_

* * *

Hermione had laughed out loud at reading it; she imagined Bill pouting at having to leave Egypt as he wrote. Her mood had sunk again quickly though, as she remembered that she hadn't seen or spoken Bill since she'd sent him away from the hospital wing. She had wanted to write him, but couldn't find the words, and now that a month had passed it would seem odd to suddenly contact him.

She was glad that he was at least back from Egypt. It seemed silly, but it reassured her to have him in the same country. Unbeknownst to either of them, the goblins were extremely happy that they'd recalled Bill to England, for whilst the answers Hermione sent were perfect, the best really, they had only three employees with the cranial capacity to understand them. One was an arrogant manager who considered such jobs beneath himself ever since he was promoted. Another was Bill Weasley, and the third was Ms. Scuttles herself.

"The tournament.", Hermione thought after a while. "We can talk about the tournament."

That was no good either though, because they had talked about the tournament so much already. She had long since solved the egg clue. The screaming noise that came from it when opened had shocked her, so initially she had studied the rune inscriptions, found an amplification enchantment, and planned to disable it. She decided not to however, when she realized that the type of runes used must be a clue in itself. Indeed, the runes were from an archaic mermish dialect, so she tried holding the egg underwater, and heard the song. It seemed straightforward enough, something dear to her would be stolen, and she'd have to retrieve it. She couldn't help but think though, that there was a catch somewhere, a hidden meaning that she overlooked, but she was confident that she'd find it in time, she still had months.

Even so, this left her without a not Bill-related conversation subject.

"Skeeter. She's behaving well, isn't she?", Hermione finally said, quite desperately. Cedric decided to go along with it, understanding that his friend didn't want to talk about the tall Weasley. He had no idea what was going on between the two of them, but he wasn't about to screw it up.

"Yeah, I'd have expected her to be all gleeful and nosy after the first task turned out such a drama."

Indeed, the Daily Prophet had surprisingly been rather quiet about it all thus far. There had been an article of course, one that focused on the idiocy of the ministry, Hermione's clever defeating of two dragons, and her heroic saving of Fleur Delacour. Especially the last two were described in great detail, but furthermore the article only mentioned that both girls had been spotted and appeared recovered, there weren't even any insinuations about Bill carrying her out of the arena, something Hermione had expected Skeeter to blow out of proportion. Her threats must be working better than expected then, she supposed, but it was still odd.

"I'm getting used to Skeeter making factual reports, but even when writing the truth, she'd always dig for details, and this article contained nearly none at all.", Hermione remarked, she got a thoughtful look at that.

"It seems almost as if she deliberately leaves it vague, so that I can provide the details myself.", she added.

"That makes little sense to me, but if you say so, I guess it'll be true.", Cedric shrugged.

"Yes, that's what it must be. I'll write her a letter now, to quote from. If I write this the right way, it might just solve a few little problems. Fancy helping me?", the girl said as she withdrew a scrap of parchment from an inner pocket of her robe.

Cedric just shrugged again, as if to say 'why not'.

* * *

_Dear Ms. Skeeter,_

_It is in response to your article about the first task from the Triwizard Tournament that I find myself writing this letter to you today. I am quite aware that it was published nearly a month ago, but I fear I was not really up to this any sooner. Do not forget that, even if I did beat two dragons, I am still but a teenage girl; that day was one hell of a physical blow, excuse me my language, but left me mentally scarred as well. It took me a while to recover, but once I had digested the whole ordeal a bit, I was given a copy of the article. It did not escape my notice that you must have left it up to me to decide just how much I wanted the world to know about my experience, and thank you profusely for respecting my privacy at a moment when I needed it like never before. The article still did a great job at describing the general story though, and with all the gruesome events in it, I thought that without knowing the end, people might be worried either about me or Fleur, Ms. Delacour._

_Therefore, I would like to start with confirming that I am indeed all right, now at least. When I was carried out of the arena I was merely magically exhausted, for it takes more power than I can afford to use to tamper with wards and put such a strong stasis charm on a person. Of course it did not really help that I gave a blood transfusion to Fleur whilst I was barely even conscious, but I would do it again any day, because a life is worth far more to me than a little trauma._

_Fleur is fine now too. Her many wounds were easily healed, it was the blood loss that was so dangerous, but the transfusion saved her. This did affect me, because of her veela ancestry, but it is not all that bad. My hair has grown a lot longer, and I will not get scars anymore, but that is pretty much it. I was lucky not to get any of the other veela attributes, like that horrid allure or something. In fact, I have a written statement from both the school nurse and an independent expert from St. Mungo's that I do not, yet the forty-six men (at last count) that have thus far tried to force themselves on me all used it as the excuse for their intolerable behavior. Suffice it to say, my body-bind hex is getting quite a workout. My faith in humanity however, suffers irreparable damage._

_I suppose I should take it as a compliment that men seem to find me attractive, but the manner in which they express it is inappropriate, illegal, and detrimental to my mental wellbeing, which I hope them to realize as they read this._

_Well then, I guess this would be all. I would like to thank everyone who supported me through both the task and the aftermath, and state that I have good hopes to bring the second task to an end as successful as the first._

_Yours sincerely,_

_Hermione Granger_

* * *

"It's brilliant, 'Mione! With those subtle comments about legality, you're threatening those guys who bother you without them even realizing it.", Cedric congratulated her once she was done writing.

"Yes, remind me to thank Susan for advising me to get that medical statement. It may not have helped much thus far, but now that it'll be printed in the paper I think it'll have a very positive effect."

"Yeah, she's nice that way.", Cedric said casually. He didn't even seem to realize he said it, but Hermione filed the comment away to mull it over some more at a later date, as there were more things to be done now.

"Let's find Fleur, we should ask her if she's okay with how we've written it, with us mentioning her in it."

Cedric readily agreed and opened the portrait entrance to the kitchens for her as she thanked her house elf friends for the service.

* * *

It had been after dinner already when Cedric took Hermione to the kitchens. Therefore, it was nearly midnight once Hermione returned to Gryffindor tower, and nobody was around anymore. Nobody except one young redhead that lay sprawled on a couch, but startled awake as his champion housemate entered the common room.

"Hermione, we need to talk!", Ron Weasley said after jumping up.


	10. 10 - A Variety of Ginger Issues

(A/N)

Reviews, reviews, reviews EVERYWHERE! Beg pardon, got a bit overenthusiastic over there. Anyway, Guest, Flyingberry, Tsukiyo Tenshi, Nikyta, Hellcat-Sakura, Rosemary Lily Marie, Terrence Rogue and PurpleBullet, you are my favorite people on this website. Want to become one of my favorite people too? It's easy, just hit that little blue button thingy that says 'Post Review', after writing one of course.

I understand the comment on the patronus by the way, a crab isn't really the first animal you would think of when seeing Hermione, but I didn't want to do an otter, I wanted Hermione to have that nickname and it fitted really well with a crab because they 'scuttle away' and such, and I just really like crabs. It's okay to think otherwise though, all opinions are allowed. Here in the Netherlands at any rate, I saw in the stats that I have visitors from China too, good to know there are also websites their government doesn't block. But now I'm losing track of what I was saying.

So where was I… Reviews. Right, you all seem rather curious about Ronald, hehehe. I hope I managed to surprise you. I wanted him to make a really huge mistake that truly fixed him as a bad person amongst his family and connections. I decided to change the rating to M because of Ronalds actions, just to be safe. The question is now, what are the consequences? Will he be expelled? Does Hermione get over it? You'll read that in the next chapter, I got it planned out already.

Anyway, this chapter is HUGE. I've been looking all over for a suitable place to split it in two, but in the end I just couldn't bring myself to leave you with all too big a cliff-hanger. Hope you like it, hope you still remember from the last A/N that I don't own Harry Potter, if not so then here's a little reminder.

* * *

**Chapter 10 – A Variety of Ginger Issues**

"Oh, I just love the world on this happy, happy day!", Susan Bones, fourth year Hufflepuff cried out as she skipped up yet another flight of stairs.

"Be quiet, the teachers will hear us!", Justin Finch-Fletchley interjected, as he, Ernie Macmillan and Hannah Abbott were walking with their other Hufflepuff yearmate.

It was Saturday evening. As there were no lessons to attend for Susan on such a day, it had been chosen as the date for the court case with Malfoy. It had been a resounding success of course: Susan was a good actress, and had played her part perfectly, acting up the Hufflepuff loyalty she felt for her family, and her despair when she realized the line might have ended with her. The position of the wealthy Bones family, and the cold stare Susan's aunt gave from behind her monocle helped a lot too, so in the end they indeed got half of all what the Malfoys possessed, including the manor, as Hermione had advised. Madam Bones would be shopping for red and gold curtains and wallpaper the next day.

Susan had been partying with her friends all evening, celebrating her victory. When the butterbeer in the common room ran out they had decided to go fetch some more from the kitchens, which is when they ran into Cedric, who had been there with Hermione and was just returning to the common room. This instigated a change of plans, for Susan wanted to inform Hermione personally how it all went, and thank her. This is why she was now climbing the umpteenth flight of stairs on the way to Gryffindor Tower.

When they finally approached the place Hermione had described as the entrance to the common room, they heard a strange noise though, emitting from a nearby broom closet. The four badgers fell silent, came closer and listened at the door, only to scuttle away as a voice from inside suddenly rang out:

"RONALD! WHAT! NO! I DON'T WANT! HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLL LLLPPPPPPP!"

* * *

It had been only a few minutes before that when Ron told Hermione they had to talk. Having been friends for three years, she had been inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt, and followed him out of the common room.

"Where are we going?", she had asked him, a little apprehensively.

"Just somewhere more private.", he had answered, and she had spoken no more.

"Of course.", she had thought. He was going to apologize to her, but wouldn't want to be overheard doing so because he was a male and those considered it embarrassing to face their mistakes.

"Is this really necessary?", she had asked though, as he pulled her into a broom closet. It was a general rule that one needed a lot of space for an emotional conversation with Ronald Weasley. If only she had listened to that instinct, if only she hadn't trusted him so easily, despite their previous friendship, if only she had known what he was thinking at the time…

Yes, what was going on in Ron's head? Well, mostly that the girl with him was the cause of all his current problems. Where to start, where to start?

Let's start with his social position. Since his first year, he had sucked up to Potter, because that scrawny little guy was like the ultimate celebrity, so he'd get to share in the fame by befriending him. Unfortunately, Potter and Granger turned out to be a package deal, and he couldn't stand the latter. After a while however, he discovered that it was handy to have her help him with his homework, something she didn't do now, so his grades were low enough to make McGonagall write his parents, problem number two.

Problem number three was that he had planned to marry Granger. Yes that is right, he, Ronald Billius Weasley, would marry the annoying Granger chit. But it made sense! In a way… You see, Ron knew he would be a really famous quidditch player when he left school, he was very certain of that. He couldn't play all his life though, and he had no intention of getting a job afterwards. That's where Granger came in. She wasn't good-looking of course, but pretty women never cared if a man was married or not, so he could always find his 'entertainment' somewhere else. Granger, as his wife, would get him some children because she wouldn't mind messing up her figure for it, and that would make him his mother's favorite. Then when his quidditch career was done and their kids were off to school, she would get a job to provide for them, and he would enjoy a very, very early retirement. It didn't seem this would happen anymore, now.

But back to problem number one, his social status. After Granger had stolen his place in the tournament, Potter had taken her side, leaving him alone. The whole school, including the Slytherins who were scared of her, had agreed with their wonderboy of course, making him a pariah. Heck, even Malfoy didn't cause trouble, that git seemed preoccupied with something lately. Worst was that she turned his entire family against him. The twins were the first to go, but his sister quickly followed, she wouldn't even speak to him anymore. After the first task Granger was all his three eldest brothers cared about too, and having heard all their reports, his parents were now egging him on to apologize to Granger as well. Not that he planned to, they would realize that he was right eventually.

Such were Ronald's thoughts on Hermione Granger. One thing was certain, his plan was screwed up. There was something that screwed it up even further though, for despite Ron's belief in the opposite, Hermione was a very pretty girl. As a hormonal teenage boy with no common sense whatsoever and even les self-restraint, he couldn't help following his primal urges. Which is why he led her into a broom closet now.

Not realizing his intentions, Hermione went along with it. Before she knew it, she was scampering back into the corner of the cramped space, she'd dropped her wand before even getting a hold on it, and only barely managed to avert her face before Ron tried to force his mouth on hers. His hands were all over her though, ripping her robes apart, tugging at the clothes she wore underneath them, so she did the only thing she could think of. She screamed. Hard.

"RONALD! WHAT! NO! I DON'T WANT! HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLL LLLPPPPPPP!"

* * *

That's where we get back to our Hufflepuff heroes. Susan quickly identified the voice as Hermione's, and signaled for her friends to give her back up as she threw the closet door open. Surprised to see Ron Weasley there, she stepped aside. A good thing for her, for that was the moment that Hermione regained her senses, withdrew her spare wand from her arm holster and sent a Knockback jinx at Ron with all the power she could muster in her distraught state. The result wasn't pretty. Even less pretty was what Ron looked like after the badger boys were done with him.

The badger boys yes, for the female half of the quartet busied themselves with Hermione. Upon realizing that she was saved, the girl had passed out due to shock and trauma. Hannah quickly took off her yellow-trimmed school robe and wrapped it around her, both to cover up her disheveled clothes and to ward off the cold.

Susan meanwhile picked up Hermione's two wands and stuffed the spare back in the arm holster, which had become visible upon being emptied. She gave the spare wand a thoughtful frown, she'd ask her auntie to get her a spare too, it seemed a wise thing to do. For now there were matters to be dealt with though.

"I'll bring her to the hospital wing, she knows me best from the four of us, so if she wakes I'll scare her the least.", she said in a commanding voice.

"Boys, show that git what loyalty means to us Hufflepuffs, but don't do something that'd get you expelled. Keep him here so that we can easily find you. Hannah, you find Cedric, he's a prefect so he'll be able to get you to the headmaster." Susan frowned a bit after that. "On second thoughts, fetch professors Sprout and McGonagall first. Dumbledore kept Lockhart employed whilst the Daily Prophet declared him a pedophile, we shouldn't trust his judgment. McGonagall will defend Hermione like a lioness, and Sprout will keep McGonagall in check and make sure the little Weasley bastard gets an adequate punishment."

"That makes sense. Should I send some of her friends over after that?", Hannah asked.

"All her friends except me are either male or ginger-haired, it'd be better not to confront her with such things immediately, I believe.", Susan answered. Her aunt, as head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, had many manuals about procedures, also those regarding rape victims. She had read some of them, and remembered this bit.

"Wait, the French champion, Delacour, she's been helping Hermione with her stalkers already, you should get her. After you get the professors though, she'll be in that big carriage and that's all the way over on the grounds."

Hannah nodded that she understood, and ran off. Justin and Ernie saluted the girls as Susan quietly mumbled 'mobilicorpus' and ran off in the other direction, towards the hospital wing, with Hermione floating behind her.

* * *

"Mollywobbles, darling, I think it's time for bed now, midnight has passed already.", Arthur Weasley said softly to his wife as they enjoyed a drink, sitting on one of the worn-down couches in their cozy living room.

"Time for bed it is, but I don't feel like sleeping yet.", she answered him, climbing into his lap. The couch they sat on groaned, as did Bill, who had come down to fetch a glass of water. No grown man ever wanted to hear his parents say such a thing.

Upon being transferred to England unexpectedly early, the young man had found himself without a place to live, so he had moved back in with his parents temporarily, something he severely regretted at the moment. If he was getting another sibling, he didn't want to be aware of the production process. Luckily for his sanity, his parents were interrupted even before he had crept back up the stairs, by a rather urgent firecall. Who in their right mind would call at such an ungodly hour?

"Molly, Arthur, glad to see you still awake. You'd better come through real quick, it's about Ronald, it's an emergency!", McGonagall yelled through the fireplace.

Bill, all mortification forgotten, ran into the living room whilst summoning a robe which he quickly put on, meaning to ask for details. McGonagall had disappeared already though.

"Mum, dad, what's going on?", he asked, frightened for his brother, who often ended up in the hospital due to Harry Potter's heroic adventures. Ron and Harry hadn't been speaking lately however, so what could it be?

"We don't know either, we'd better go find out!", his father answered as his mum got teary-eyed. Bill handed her a handkerchief as he secured one last button on his robe and led them trough the floo.

As the redheaded trio left the fireplace, they tumbled into the headmaster's office, the owner of which looked uncommonly grim, his customary eye-twinkle all but gone. Flanking him on either side were professors Sprout and McGonagall, the latter of which jumped up when seeing Bill.

"Ah, William, of course, it was quite obvious after that ordeal in November. You'll find miss Granger in the hospital wing, though you'd better be careful, she might not want you near her at the moment!"

Bill's face fell at that, but he hid it as he quickly left the office via the spiral staircase. Did McGonagall know about him fancying Hermione? She didn't seem much of a match-maker, she looked an old maid herself with that strict bun and the tartan overload.

Not that anything was going on between him and Hermione to begin with. She'd made it clear that she didn't want any contact with him, first sending him away and then ignoring him. He had been quite a mess because of it, the past month. Not that his manly ego would allow him to admit it, but he was lovesick, and to top it off he went spare with worry about the object of it.

The prophet had said little about how she was doing. Bill didn't know of course that Hermione's letter to Skeeter would be printed the next day, he only knew from Charlie that Ginny had written him that Hermione was fine, but that information had been two weeks delayed because Charlie was back in Romania, and he didn't like third-hand information to begin with.

That's why he went down to the hospital wing anyway, despite the warning from McGonagall that Hermione would probably reject him again. He needed to know that she was all right, to see it for himself…

The hospital wing was silent. The lights were off, the nurse nowhere in sight, the doors locked. Bill shrugged; he probably had a better chance of entering without the nurse present. He easily disabled the doorwards and crept inside.

Yes, creeping up on a victim of attempted rape whilst you physically resemble the culprit, real smart thing to do…

"Ginger, everywhere… RONALD, NO!", Hermione yelled out. She had awoken as she heard the door open, and due to her recent nasty experience saw nothing but the hair color of her visitor for a while, until she noticed its length.

"Oh, I'm sorry Ginny. Wait, even longer hair… William?", she asked confused, still half asleep, and seeing hardly anything in the dark.

"My hair really isn't longer than Ginny's!", the William in question cried indignantly.

"It is!", the girl retorted, but then blushed and looked away, remembering how it felt in her hands as she tied it back like she used to. An awkward silence ensued.

Bill was glad that Hermione was at least capable of speech, but he didn't like her grayish complexion, her face was deathly pale and she had obviously been crying. She looked like a frightened animal, and he yearned to hold her, to protect her, to comfort her. He didn't dare approach her though, not after that last time, so he seated himself at a safe distance.

"You're not still here from after the first task, are you?", he asked after a while, trying not to sound too desperate.

"No, I was hardly hurt then, I only had to be kept because I gave Fleur a blood transfusion.", Hermione answered, attempting a neutral tone.

Fleur? Who in Merlin's name was Fleur? Then it clicked. Of course, Delacour, the champion Hermione had saved. But that girl was partially veela, wasn't she? What did the paper say again…

"Blood transfusion… With a veela. That's why you se- Why I was kept away.", Bill stated, trying not to sound too accusatory.

"Yeah… Male humans and veela's… No good.", Hermione reacted lamely. She knew they were both thinking 'but you, Bill, are the only one I sent away'. She however, didn't want to draw attention to that, afraid to have him find out about her embarrassing feelings for him. He however, perceived it as if she thought he was some sort of hormone-ruled savage that had been wanting to do unmentionable things to her, but was to nice to mention it.

He decided to try to divert her attention from that train of thought, by asking her if there were any lingering effects, and she briefly explained them.

"So, if you long since got away from here, why are you back then?", he asked after that.

"You didn't know?", she asked surprised, frowning. "What are you doing here then? In the middle of the night, might I add."

"I'm staying with my parents at the moment, and they were called here for Ron so I came along, and then McGonagall just sent me here, I don't know why either." Bill noticed her shiver that moment, but didn't connect it to Ron being mentioned, he just blamed it on the cold. He now realized that she wore only a pair of thin hospital pajama's, whilst she sat upright, which must mean that she was freezing. He grabbed a nearby blanket from the bed he sat on, came near her for the first time in a month, and wrapped the woolen object tightly around her shoulders. She sighed.

"It was a rape attempt. One of many, but the only one to nearly succeed." She didn't look at him, choosing instead to watch her right hand fumble with her wand holster, therefore she didn't notice his facial expression, which was an odd combination of murderous hatred and deep concern. A lone tear trickled down her cheek now.

"I don't know what it is with those idiots, but they seem to think that since I saved a veela, they are allowed to bother me at their leisure. I don't even have the veela allure, I have a medical statement saying that for Merlin's sake, but still…", she trailed off.

Bill didn't know what to say to that, instead he joined her in watching her hand hold a seemingly invisible object. It took a moment before he realized that it was the wand holster he had given her, he hadn't thought she would wear it, but supposed it made sense for her to wear it now that she must feel in constant danger of being jumped on unwillingly.

Hermione gave a sad sort of smile as she noticed him looking and guessed what he must think, and for the first time really looked him in the eye as she spoke.

"It saved my life. Or my virginity, or my innocence or whatever. I blasted that bloody bastard away with my spare wand, just as he was ripping the buttons off my shirt, which enabled some Hufflepuffs to detain him. You can say a lot about 'Puffs, but loyal they surely are."

Again, the only reaction Bill could muster was a nod, but this time they felt as if it conveyed more than words ever could. They quickly looked away again though, and more awkward silence followed.

After a while, Bill made an attempt at casual conversation.

"So, does the other veela stuff bother you much? The amount of hair must be annoying, but I see your teeth shrunk too, that should be nice."

"The teeth didn't shrink due to the veela blood.", she muttered darkly.

"Why've they changed then?", the man said confused. Hermione didn't seem one to use spells to better her appearance.

"Ronald knocked them out during his… Episode.", she growled. "I didn't feel like letting them grow back all the way to their former glory."

"He… He… What?!" The exact meaning took a moment to penetrate Bill's mind, but when it all clicked he went livid. So that's why his parents had been called to Hogwarts in the middle of the night!

"He was the one to attack you? Merlin, and I thought…" What had he even thought? Had he thought at all?

"One of them.", the girl choked out as she broke down in his arms, which he had readily put around her.

"He was the only successful one. I got some nasty wounds in a duel with Krum, the other blokes I just hexed away, or Cedric or one of the others would. But he succeeded. Got me into a broom closet, cornered me… If not for…", at that point she couldn't speak anymore. Bill didn't like the idea of Cedric being the prince who defended HIS fair maiden, but decided that that was not something to talk about now.

"How? Why Ron? I mean, he's obvious, clueless and generally stupid, if anyone, I wouldn't expect him to be able to take you off guard."

"We were friends, William." She looked at him intently. "Not best friends, we could hardly stand each other. But we fought side by side for the same cause, and you and I know very well the sort of bond that such a thing creates." They gazed into each others' eyes some more, both knowing that she meant the fight after the world cup. And Bill understood now, he realized he trusted her with his life, that he had not a single doubt about any aspect of her. Hermione averted her eyes after that. "Then imagine that that other person would betray you, you wouldn't even think of the possibility."

Bill's throat went dry. It was the ultimate betrayal, and his own brother had been the one to commit it.

"Why were you even friends with him?", he asked hoarsely.

Hermione nearly laughed at this, she would have had she been in a better mood, for this reminded her of a conversation between Cedric and her, one they held during one of their kitchen expeditions.

* * *

"Honestly 'Mione, you must have the widest network of friends of all people I ever met, so how in the world did you end up with Potter and that idiot Weasley as your best mates?", Cedric had asked.

It had been during what Hermione tagged 'The Firebolt Fuss', the period in which Ronald refused to speak to her because she had told McGonagall of Harry's Firebolt. Harry had actually been on her side, contrary to popular belief. He understood she was acting in his best interest, which was the whole basis of their friendship. He was just frustrated because she could have checked the thing for curses far faster, enabling him to fly on it. She just didn't have enough confidence to trust herself with such a task back then, and therefore Harry had quickly forgiven her. Still, he didn't want to lose his best male friend, and she was extremely busy with her overlapping class schedule, so for the sake of peace in Gryffindor Tower they had decided not to mention this to Ron, and it had worked perfectly.

"Well,", Hermione had begun her answer, gathering her thoughts, "it all started on the Hogwarts Express. I had read a lot about Harry Potter as the savior. Didn't believe a word of it of course, the evidence lacked sense. I mean, if his parents and Voldemort died that night, and the only other one present was a toddler no one ever spoke after that, then how could anyone know what happened? I did realize however, that this must be how the wizarding world saw him, as some sort of god. They had blown it all out of proportion, and if trouble were to arise, they'd expect him to solve it all." She snorted slightly at that. "Then I took one look at him, saw the scrawny little kid that he was, and knew that if my life depended on him, I might as well start writing my obituary."

Cedric laughed along with her, but wondered where this was going.

"I soon found out that I was the only one to think so. Except Harry. And that he seemed quite scared at the thought. So I sought him out, and we reached a kind of silent agreement that I'd help him face all the responsibility unwillingly bestowed on him."

"That leaves Weasley though.", Cedric interjected.

"Yes, it does."

Ron liked to think that Hermione had had no friends before Harry and he 'saved' her from that troll. He liked it even more that his making her cry had placed her in its path in the first place; it was disturbing, but he liked that kind of power. This was not the truth though, like everyone but him saw.

In fact, Hermione was very popular, but only along those who were able to appreciate her company. Her intellect had isolated her during her first week or so, which made her seek refuge in the library, which in its turn attracted the attention of the Weasley twins like previously discussed. Then, when she met Cedric, things took a turn for the better.

Together with Cedric, and Percy Weasley, whose help they enlisted because he was a prefect, they started the inter-house study group. There was one for every year, and it was a huge success.

Via the group, Hermione became good friends with her Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff yearmates, as well as the two Slytherins who joined. The Gryffindors in general looked down upon study groups, but Neville had joined for sake of his grades, and never regretted it. Hermione had a way of bringing forward the best in everyone. She created a safe, welcoming environment in their little corner in the library, and then appointed tutors for every subject so that each member could shine in that what they were best at.

She gave Herbology to Neville of course, but teamed him up with Hannah Abbott. Both were shy, but together they dared to stand up and explained everything as good as professor Sprout did.

The two snakes, Daphne Greengrass and Blaise Zabini took on Potions together, not daring to leave each others' side amongst all those others at first, but remaining together once they found out they liked each other even more than they liked potions. In the privacy of the study group she let slip her cold ice princess demeanor a bit, and he dimmed down his macho attitude.

Justin Finch-Fletchley was one hell of a storyteller; he made them see the goblin rebellions in a whole new light as their History of Magic tutor.

Terry Boot was great at Transfiguration, and Michael Corner had a gift with Charms. With some aide from Hermione in teaching techniques they managed to get the group trough both subjects with superb grades.

And thus the list went on and on. Cedric, Percy and some other older students Hermione befriended because of the study groups gave similar reports. The groups raised not only the grades of the students, but their confidence and general happiness too. Percy even won over his girlfriend Penelope during those afternoon study sessions, and he was eternally grateful to Hermione for that.

This is how Hermione, unseen by Ronald, became one of the most beloved and appreciated people residing in Hogwarts. After a while even Dean Tomas and Seamus Finnegan joined the group, even Hermione's shallow dormmates, Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil did. Harry couldn't though, because the meetings clashed with his quidditch training, and not understanding that Harry would have wanted to go, Ronald decided not to join.

Cedric already knew all of this, though, so she went on from there.

"Well, the study group was going strong, and I was very happy. Then however, I overheard some older Slytherins talking about ambushing a seventh year Hufflepuff just before the Halloween feast. I knew the teachers would think those Slytherins were just pranking me if I told them, so I decided to sort it out myself. Ronald made a stupid comment about me having no friends, and I took it as an excuse to run off, pretending to cry. My idiotic dormmates, who hadn't joined the study group yet at that point, they must have seen it and convinced everyone that I was crying in a bathroom somewhere. I however went to find that 'Puff, found her only just in time too."

"Who was it?", Cedric interjected curiously, earning a disapproving glare from Hermione.

"You probably know her, so I won't tell, I have her confidence. Anyway, she got this mischievous look and told me we'd just make the ambushers ambushees. She taught me the body-bind hex then, we took them down with it, she left to find a teacher and I went down to the feast. That's when I ran into the troll. I hid in the bathroom, where I'd have been safe, but Ronald locked me in with the troll. Then Harry and he defeated it in the most ridiculous manner possible, and from then on he considered me worthy of his presence."

"And you just went along with it? I can't believe you LIKE to put up with that prat?"

"Well, he kind of grows on you, like an endearing helpless puppy that tries to bite off your fingers on a regular basis. The point was though, that he and Harry are kind of a package deal."

"Ah, it's starting to make sense now."

"And I calculated that within three generations one fifth of the population of the wizarding world will either be a Weasley or directly related to one, so I figured it would be prudent to be on good terms with him.", Hermione added, and Cedric bursted out laughing.

* * *

She didn't feel like telling this to Bill though, so she just cried harder, effectively cutting off the conversation. It made him hold her tighter as well, something she didn't mind at all.

Those strange feelings came back, those feelings that made her think that everything was great. Intellectually she knew she couldn't be in love, she hardly knew this young man after all. They had only spoken during that week before the world cup, and that day she went to see her parents. And they had fought a bunch of Death Eaters together, the adrenaline of that was probably to blame. So why did she still feel that adrenaline after months? She did know that this was not some random crush, she'd had those before.

Her biggest crush probably had been Cedric, and really, he had all she'd ever look for in a guy, but as previously explained, he was too much like a brother to her.

She'd had a major crush on Lockhart as well, for about five hours. When she first got his books she had thought he was God's gift to women, but then, thorough student that she was, she had made a timeline of his accomplishments the same afternoon and noticed that they overlapped. When realizing that he was a fraud, her five-hour crush faded immediately, and she sent her timeline to the Daily Prophet, anonymously. She had been lucky, it ended up with Rita Skeeter, who somehow found out in the ministry records that he was a known pedophile, and had a field day painfully eliminating his career. Dumbledore still employed him though, to teach in A SCHOOL FULL OF YOUNG CHILDREN, to the teachers' collective abhorrence, but with the truth out in the open they had at least known to be on their guard. Needless to say, Lockhart's demonstration of werewolf wrestling moves on Harry had not been appreciated, yet Dumbledore had refused to fire him until he lost his memory due to that backfiring charm.

Yes, Bill Weasley was nothing like Lockhart. He was a bit like Cedric though, in personality. He was just as kind, caring and helpful as the sixth year Hufflepuff, but he was a bit more resolute and solid. More distinguished too, and so dashing…

Thus it was a very busy day for some of Hogwarts' inhabitants. Let's not forget the outside world, however.

* * *

Lucius Malfoy enjoyed his twenty-third shot of firewhiskey in the Hogshead pub in Hogsmeade. Not that he really enjoyed it, he was far too drunk and depressed for that. In a few short hours, he had lost half his wealth. His wife hated him now even more than she already did, for money and family were the only reasons she married him in the first place, in that order. Also, he'd had to give up the manor, which contained most of her expensive clothes.

Giving up the manor had at least ensured that everyone was sworn to secrecy, his reputation was safe.

He looked up as some blonde tart seated herself next to him. Trough his bleary eyes she almost looked pretty.

"What has you looking so miserable?", she asked, leaning forward.

"Well,", he drawled in an odd combination of a drunken slur and his usual aristocratic accent. "there's this little something where I lost half my money and my wife's support because our child is female and we passed her off as a boy for fourteen years."

"Oh, do tell!", Rita Skeeter cried out gleefully, feeling this was the story that would bring her eternal fame.


	11. 11 - Badgering Ronald

(A/N)

Yesterday I suddenly realized that this story then existed exactly one month! How fast time goes when you're having fun… Anyway, let's say that I'm posting this chapter in celebration. I'd have posted it anyway, but now it almost seems special. I realize now that whilst it is about 8 AM on Saturday over here already, it must still be Friday in the time zone that the website uses, so in a very intellectual way that I'm too sleepy to think about, I'm posting this on Friday. Ugh, I shouldn't be allowed to write author's notes when I've just woken up.

Sooo, back to the relevant stuff. Many reviewers again this time: Guest, Terrence Rogue, Flyingberry, CosmoGirl666, Sampdoria, Sparrowflyaway, Apollymae, Angel897, Rosemary Lily Marie, Flamegirl5500 and Nikyta, love you guys as always.

Things are indeed looking grim for Malfoy, but she might just gain something more valuable in the end. About her first name, by the way, I've decided to go with a suggestion from Arabella Lee Smith, so it's not Dracona after all. It's even nicer, you'll all find out in the next chapter, so keep following ;-)

And yes, the name B.A.H. was thought up with S.P.E.W. in mind. Isn't it a noble cause?

Disclaimer: don't own Harry Potter. I always feel like I'm insulting my readers' memory when I put a disclaimer under EVERY chapter, like they'd forget it after the first one… When the disclaimer is missing though, it's because MY memory actually deserves to be insulted.

Anyway, enjoy the chapter!

* * *

**Chapter 11 – Badgering Ronald**

Madam Pomphrey was an old woman. This didn't usually bother her, but now that she'd been woken in the middle of the night, it did. Once done with miss Granger, the nurse had fallen asleep oblivious to any noise, including those made by Bill Weasly when breaking into the hospital wing, and the ensuing conversation. It was therefore that she was greatly surprised when she and her dear friend Minerva McGonagall went down to the hospital wing the following morning, and they found the doorwards broken.

"Oh no!", madam Pomphrey immediately cried out, assuming the worst. McGonagall, who had come with the other woman to help console Hermione, and to inform her of the measures taken against Ronald, understood what must have happened though.

"Wait!", she cried, not wanting to disturb what was probably going on in the hospital wing at that moment. "William Weasley came down here last night, you must remember how quickly he cracked the wards last time."

Madam Pomphrey however, was not reassured. "In her traumatized state he'll scare her to death, she'll probably think he's Ronald, they're brothers after all!"

McGonagall just shook her head. "Last time she recognized him whilst she was only half-conscious and he was not even in her line of sight. She would never mistake him for Ronald." She added one more line with an eye-twinkle and a smirk: "In fact, I think she's very much aware of him, therefore I see a little project in the making."

The two women smirked some more at each other as they fondly reminisced about their own schooldays, half a century ago, when they had been the unofficial matchmaker duo of Hogwarts. They had been the only ones ever to succeed in talking the handsome Slytherin headboy Tom Riddle into going on a blind date, with his fellow Slytherin Eileen Prince no less.

"You know, it's almost funny that neither of us ever married. It's like fate is getting one over us for living vicariously through other people's relationships all those years.", madam Pomphrey joked.

"It is, Poppy my dear. But if our fate is sealed already, we have nothing to lose anymore, and might as well have a wee bit of fun."

"Oh, and I've been yearning to pair miss Granger up with someone for years! We finally have a girl capable of maintaining a serious relationship, rather than the shagging about that is all the teenagers of this decade seem to do anymore.", the nurse giggled enthusiastically.

"Me too! I used to think it would be either Mr. Potter or Mr. Diggory, but now I see how much better Mr. Weasley would be for her. If I believed in that whole divination nonsense I'd say they were destined to be together.", the Scottish woman firmly agreed.

"Let's see what we have to work with!", the two spinsters said in unison as they opened the already unlocked door.

Bill Weasley sat half-upright, slumped against the headboard of the hospital bed he was seated on, in what must be the most uncomfortable position humanly possible, but still slept with a smile on his face, as Hermione Granger lay next to him, snuggling into his chest. Unknown to him, two women were fawning over the sight it made, crooning at the utter cuteness, until they were startled by the hooting of an owl that flew into the ward.

"Wonder if they even need our help anymore.", McGonagall commented quietly.

"Come, we'll spy on them from my office, he seems to be waking up!", Pomphrey interjected, and dragged her friend into said office, just in time.

The owl they had heard offered Bill a copy of the Daily Prophet, which he accepted with some difficulty as he attempted to wiggle his various limbs into a more comfortable position without waking the girl in his lap. He groaned as he felt his spine crack, the next time he spent the night in a bed with Hermione he'd be lying down too.

"Don't look at me like that!", he muttered at the owl, which looked knowingly at the young man who had blushed a deep red at his own internal comment. Trying to put his mind off the idea of sleeping next to Hermione, and the very awkward not-so-little problem in his pants, he opened the paper, only to laugh so hard at seeing the front page that he still woke up his companion.

"Billy-bear…", she mumbled as her eyes opened, only to shut tight in mortification. He hadn't heard that, had he? Luckily he didn't seem to have, Bill was too busy devouring the article about Malfoy.

"Good morning 'Mione, I think I found something to make this a good morning indeed!", he spoke gleefully to the girl who attempted to assume an upright position, grabbed a hairbrush from the nightstand once she sat, and started brushing her long, curly hair.

"Let's see it then!", she replied, and burst into laughter along with him upon seeing the newspaper, as did their two spectators from behind the one-way sound barrier on the office window, where they stood looking trough a pirate-style spyglass.

"Can't believe the plan worked THAT good!", Hermione cried out between gales of laughter, for on the front page was a picture of a drunken Lucius Malfoy, with a sensational summary of all his misdeeds and misfortunes, as confessed to Rita Skeeter the night before.

"Plan? What plan?", Bill asked curiously, and at that Hermione briefly described the illustrious schemes her Slytherin side had come up with: blackmailing Skeeter, helping Susan, extorting Malfoy's fortune… Bill hugged her tightly when she was done, declaring that he never wanted to get on her bad side. Hermione wanted to say that he'd be on her good side forever if he kept doing that, but couldn't get the words passed her lips.

McGonagall and Pomphrey saw her blushing however, and crooned again, after collecting their jaws from the floor where they'd dropped onto as the story amazed the two women completely.

The blush still lingering on her cheeks, Hermione now did Bill's hair too. Had their joints been less stiffened by old age, the women would have done a victory dance. It just looked so sweet! The man sat there with that smug little smile on his face as the girl gently stroked his gorgeous red hair with the hairbrush, time seemed to have stopped as they basked in each other's company.

The moment ended when a stomach rumbled. Hermione and Bill looked accusatory at each other, until Hermione sighed in defeat. Not a second later however, Bill's stomach joined the orchestra.

"I'm hungry!", she now admitted, glaring at him. He just smiled teasingly.

"Well, I'm six years out of Hogwarts, but I still know where the kitchens are!"

"You're a male and a Weasley, your species has a selective memory capable of remembering anything food-related.", was her swotty retort.

"Hmpf. Family insults aside, I could get my hands on some food over there."

"Asking me on a date to the kitchens, are we?", Hermione joked, but all present except Bill heard the serious undertone in that statement. He however didn't dare hope she meant it that way, and thus was very sure that it was only in jest.

Unlike the ladies hiding in the office, Hermione immediately regretted the comment, until Bill answered her: "No, in fact I'm offering to bring you breakfast in bed. I don't want you walking around Hogwarts just yet after yesterdays ordeal." The thoughtfulness of that statement made everything right again.

* * *

"Good morning, miss Granger. I'm glad to see you are looking better. Have you slept well?", madam Pomphrey asked her patient as she finally left the office, after Bill had left and Hermione had changed back into the school robe Susan had lent her.

"With all due respect madam, the opposite would have been hard after you slipped me that sleeping draught.", was her smug answer.

"You actually recognized that whilst it was mixed with a calming draught?", the nurse asked astounded.

"Hey, I have a know-it-all reputation to uphold!", she smiled disarmingly, earning a slight chuckle from the normally stern professor McGonagall.

"I must say that red and gold look better on you.", the professor in question commented, pointing at the borrowed robe. The student laughed along.

"Those poor Hufflepuffs! Yellow really doesn't go well with a pale complexion."

After this the two older women turned serious though.

"Miss Granger, we should concentrate on more pressing matters now. This morning we'll be discussing Mr. Weasley's punishment with his parents and the headmaster, and if you feel up to it, we'd like you to join us.", McGonagall said carefully.

"I will.", Hermione simply answered, in a rather lifeless voice, her good mood having disappeared as soon as Ron was mentioned.

That was as far as the conversation got before it was interrupted.

"ROOM SERVICE!", Bill yelled VERY loudly as he reentered the hospital wing with a tray full of breakfast in his hands, only to come face to face with his former head of house.

"Erm, I was just bringing breakfast to 'Mione, I mean Hermione, I mean, erm, miss Granger. That one.", he stuttered, blushing redder than his hair. He vaguely gestured in Hermione's direction at the last bit, as far as that was possible while holding the tray.

He was spared the trouble of thinking up further excuses by the entrance of his parents and professor Dumbledore.

"HEADMASTER! How many times do I have to say you can't just barge in here? My patient has been through a heavily traumatizing experience, for all you know you'd scare her into an even worse state!"

The only one who paid less attention to madam Pomphrey's rant than Dumbledore was Mrs. Weasley, who immediately grabbed Hermione into a rib-cracking hug. She started a rant of her own, something about 'I can't believe my baby Ronnie would ever do such a thing'. When Bill finally managed to extricate his mother from Hermione, the girl cowered away, which in its turn gave madam Pomphrey further enticement for yelling.

"BE QUIET NOW! We won't help anyone by behaving like a babbling, bumbling band of baboons, especially not miss Granger!", McGonagall finally cried out, cutting of all other noise.

"Now, Mr. Weasley-", she looked between Bill and Arthur, "I mean Mr. William Weasley, could you leave us for a moment?"

"No, William can stay, he'll hear the verdict soon enough anyway.", Hermione interjected, and Bill gratefully sat down next to her again. Hermione's appetite had pretty much left her as the adults started discussing Ron, but Bills presence reassured her, and was the sole reason why she managed to swallow down her breakfast at all.

It was hard, hearing everyone utter suggestions about what to do with her former friend. Hermione tried to pretend it wasn't about her, that she was simply watching a crime show on TV. This objective perspective helped her work out her own opinion. Had she allowed her emotions to take over, then she would have wanted him to get the worst possible punishment, but thinking rationally, she decided to go against it, once Dumbledore agreed with the others that they should expel Ron and hand the case over to the ministry.

"No, don't expel him. I know the crime he tried to commit is inexcusable, and to be honest I'd sleep a lot quieter with him out of the castle but this is not the way."

"What do you mean, Hermione?", Mrs. Weasley asked, she'd withdraw her youngest son from school herself if he didn't get expelled first.

"Just… Let me finish this. I'll start with the selfish bit. Of course I know that the assault was not my fault in any way and all that.", Hermione held up her hand as madam Pomphrey attempted to interrupt her. "Still, incidents like this get you the wrong kind of fame, people would treat me all hesitant and such, like I could break any moment, and I don't want that, I want to be seen as a normal person. Therefore, I don't want word to get out about this, which means no ministry involvement, because we all know better than to trust the ministry's confidentiality, a few bribes here and there get you anything you want to know there.

In my case this is especially important, for now that I'm starting to overshadow them with the whole tournament thing and such, the bigoted part of the purebloods will be trying to collect dirt on me, they'd just love such a story.", after that she paused for a while.

Bill spoke softly during the intermission: "That hardly sounds selfish, but there is more, isn't there?"

"Yes.", Hermione answered, and looked every Weasley in turn straight in the eye. "There's you. Ron would never be able to do a muggle job, his mindset is simply too stuck in the wizarding world for him to ever fit in with the culture. Therefore he'll need at least one OWL to ever find employment, for without one he wouldn't be allowed to use magic. To get an OWL he'll need schooling. Transferring to a foreign school is no option, as he only speaks English, and, well…", she looked very embarrassed as she continued, "You just don't have the sort of money to hire a tutor for him." The Weasleys looked very embarrassed now too. "I don't want him to be a burden on you. He'd live off your money all his life, and knowing him he'd even like it. You'd feel responsible for him, as he's your family, but you don't deserve to be stuck with him."

Molly desperately tried to find fault with this reasoning, but internally she knew it was in everybody's best interest that her son remained at Hogwarts.

"He still must be punished!", she fervently cried out. "And we must see to your safety!"

"Yes, Mrs. Weasley, I've been thinking about it. I suppose that if we made him swear an oath on his magic to never again voluntarily come within twenty feet of me, I should be quite safe. He would be able to sit in the same classroom as me, but unable to bother me."

"That's ingenious! I'd give fifty points to Gryffindor if this weren't such a personal matter.", McGonagall reacted, and then went on.

"Speaking of house points, there may lie a solution for this mess. You know of course that as a members of one of the four houses, you are responsible for each other. When one of your housemates does something so ghastly that it brings shame on the entire house however, this is not the case. Usually such deeds warrant expulsion, yet in a few cases like this one, the culprit is allowed to remain, but put on probation for a year. His house doesn't consider him a part of it anymore though, so he gets his own points balance. If the balance is negative when the year has passed, a calendar year by the way, not a school year, then he has to leave the school anyway."

"That would work. If he gets expelled after that year, he'd be halfway through his fifth year, so he'd probably be able to get at least one OWL if he took them at the ministry.", Hermione agreed.

After that it was soon resolved: Ron would have to swear the oath and he'd be put on probation. Once this was decided, everyone frowned at the headmaster, disgruntled at his lack of input.

The headmaster in question, who had been wondering whom he could appoint to fill up the now vacant position of Harry Potter's mostly useless sidekick, started at the unpleasant sensation of having twelve eyes focused on you.

"Was there a problem?", only for McGonagall to drag him off to her office for a serious conversation about his headmasterly duties.

Molly and Arthur left too, but not before the former hugged Hermione tightly once more, and the latter thanked her for her generosity, because he understood perfectly well now that the girl had saved one of his sons from a miserable life whilst she had every right to leave him to deal with it.

This left Bill, Hermione and madam Pomphrey.

"Really miss Granger, sooner or later I'm putting a plaque above that bed declaring it yours!", the latter said, shaking her head. Hermione wasn't affronted by this, on the contrary, she got a mischievous smirk on her face.

"Okay, I'll agree on one condition." Madam Pomphrey narrowed her eyes now.

"I won't add HIS name to it, if that's what you're hoping for!", the stern nurse said with a glare at Bill, causing both young people to blush. Still, Hermione managed to get to the punch line of the joke.

"Only if you give Harry one too!"

All three laughed now, knowing how much Harry hated the hospital wing, and how often he ended up in it. Still giggling, Madam Pomphrey left as well.

Contrary to the other four people who left before her, she noticed the two girls giggling behind the door. Hannah had sent Fleur a note to come to the hospital wing in the morning, as she wasn't allowed to leave the castle after dark. Ginny had been informed about the Ronald situation by her parents, when they came in the middle of the night, and instructed to visit Hermione in the morning. This had caused the two to run into each other at said location whilst the people inside were still discussing punishments.

Bored out of their minds, the girls started talking, and soon ended up discussing Ginny's favorite topic of the moment, Bill and Hermione.

"You are trying to get them togezzur, non?"

"Oui oui! Charlie is in on it too."

"I owe 'Ermione a life dept, et ees ze least I can do to 'elp.", the French girl said, hoping to conspire even more now that it turned out that the handsome dragon keeper was involved. "Besides… Et ees great fun to get people to be togezzur!"

"Welcome to the B.A.H.-union!", Ginny said enthusiastically.

"What ees ze 'bahuhnjoon'?", Fleur asked confused.

"Not 'bah', it's B.A.H.! As in 'Bill And Hermione'! We're considering getting badges or something…"

This is what madam Pomphrey ran into as she opened the door. She couldn't stop a smirk from appearing on her face.

"Looking for allies, ladies?"

A minute later all three of them were listening at the door.

* * *

"I'd better show my face at lunch to keep up appearances, so I should dash up to the Tower now, to get some fresh clothes.", Hermione stated, oddly nervous to be alone with Bill again.

"Hey, 'Mione…", Bill began, not sure how to ask this.

"Yes William, what is it?"

"Well, I heard from Ginny that you have a Hogsmeade weekend again, next weekend. Do you have plans yet?", he asked, terribly nervous all of a sudden.

"Yes.", she grumbled. "Apparently, I am yet again the only one who actually does the Christmas shopping before Christmas. I already have both all my presents and my stuff for the Yule ball, yet the girls are taking me dress shopping in the morning and the boys are dragging me along for advice on presents in the afternoon."

"Ouch!", Bill flinched. "I don't ever want to think about female clothes stores again."

Hermione just snorted. "I got lunchtime free though, if you were trying to organize a little rendez-vous.", she said, immediately regretting her brashness again. Bill didn't seem to mind however.

"I'd gladly claim that then. Half past twelve in front of the Three Broomsticks?" He grabbed her hand, forced her to look him in the eye. "I just want to know how you are doing, I need to see it for myself." In a moment of boldness, he kissed her hand. After that he all but fled from the room though. Three women cursed him for getting cold feet as he ran down the corridor, and one just sighed wistfully.

It was only ten minutes later when Hermione walked into the Great Hall, desperately trying to look normal. She didn't walk straight to the Gryffindor table like usual though, she stopped by the Hufflepuff one first.

"Susan!", Hermione cried out with a big conspiratorial wink to said girl as she dumped the borrowed robe on the bench between her and Justin. "You won't believe what I just overheard McGonagall saying! Apparently Ronald Weasley attempted to rape a girl. His parents were called here and now he's to be put on probation and everything, it is quite true."

Susan immediately caught on. "Seriously?", she said in an exaggerated drawl, "We should tell all the other girls then, warn them!"

"Ah!", Hannah Abbott agreed, realizing too what the intention was. "We'll badger the guy like us badger girls befits, he'll learn that we aren't to be treated that way!"

Hermione was satisfied. Before dinner that day, Ronald Weasley would have the entire female half of Hogwarts' population against him, without her name ever being mentioned. The news was already spreading along the length of the Hufflepuff table.

As she turned around to walk over to Gryffindor table she almost knocked Fred over who suddenly stood behind her. He had previously been sitting with George and Ginny at the Gryffindor table, as far as possible removed from Ron, but upon seeing Hermione talk to the 'Puffs they had apparently decided that it was best to have Hermione on another table altogether. Therefore the three had wandered over to her, Harry and Lee trailing behind with no idea what was going on.

"I'm sorry Fred!", Hermione mumbled, but he laughed it off as he steadied her, and spoke together with George:

"Oh, don't overexert yourself, our fair Hermione!"

"No, the Gryffindor table is far too far a walk for you my lady."

"Guess there's but one thing for it then, brother."

"Aye, we'll enjoy this splenderous meal amongst our noble badger comrades!"

"Change of scenery and all, you know!"

Hermione didn't bother with protesting, deciding to scold them on their English instead: "Boys, boys! Is 'splenderous' even a word…"

The rest of the school didn't even look anymore; they had gotten used to random strange behavior from the infamous Weasley twins. The students simply carried on eating, discussing the sudden disgrace of both Ronald Weasley and the Malfoy family, just like Hermione did, happy to be inconspicuous.


	12. 12 - The Prodigal Daughter

(A/N)

Ugh… School started again. It's been two days and I'm already in need of another holiday.

Anyway, new chapter! You are of course immensely curious about Hermione's date with Bill, but I decided to let you sweat a little. There is some romantic activity though, Harry gets a date, and the twins finally realize what their little sister has been up to.

Malfoy also gets her new name, all credit for that goes to Arabella Lee Smith, hope you guys all like it as much as I do.

Oh and Crouch and Pettigrew are keeping the Dark Lord in the dark, kind of ironic eh? I've got plans for those two, and they won't like 'em.

Terrence Rogue, Flyingberry, Angel897, Sampdoria, Rosemary Lily Marie, my lovely reviewers, I thank you once again. I'm glad that you like what I've decided for Ron. It's all good and fun to simply throw him out of the school, but in my opinion it provides more amusement to let him see what he is missing out on, his jealousy complex will seriously bug him.

Last but not least, the infamous notorious disclaimer, and enjoy the chapter!

* * *

**Chapter 12 – The Prodigal Daughter**

The rest of that lunch hour, Hermione and the rest of the Gryffindor delegation sat at the Hufflepuff table in a never before seen statement of inter-house unity. As others saw this, some of them switched tables too. One blonde Slytherin sat next to her boyfriend at her table, impatiently waiting until enough people were afoot for her to sneak over to the Hufflepuff one inconspicuously.

"Hermione, thank Merlin you're sitting here!", Daphne Greengrass exclaimed once she reached her destination, Blaise Zabini running after her, panting slightly. "I needed to tell you, but I could never walk over to the Gryffindor table, 'cause of my housemates and all you know, pretty much synonymous to suicide, and…"

"Daphne, just what is it that you wanted to say?", Hermione interjected, interrupting the rant.

"Oh, right. It's Malfoy."

"What about her?", the six Gryffindors, the four Hufflepuff fourth years and Cedric said unanimously.

"Well… When that whole article came about, Blaise and I thought she'd be unbearable of course. Mostly I, Blaise was too preoccupied with thanking Merlin that the Slytherin dorms have separate rooms and showers for everyone. Anyway, I was expecting the worst, but then she walked up to me and just said like, 'Daphne, could I perhaps borrow a set of your school robes for a day? Yours resembles my figure the most.' Surely not what I expected!"

Everyone who was drinking something spat it out, as Harry voiced the reason: "She actually plans to dress up like a girl?!"

Daphne nodded with wide eyes as Blaise answered: "Yeah. I even gave her some of that potion that I use to grow a moustache when I want to look old enough to sneak Daphne into a night club, the kind that makes hair grow longer where you apply it, so that she can get long hair."

Fred and George now gave the young Slytherin an appraising look. "We should get our hands on some of that stuff, those beards we got when trying to enter the tournament were total lady-magnets!" Blaise looked slightly panicked at this prospect, and hid himself behind his girlfriend.

"Oh, be quiet boys!", Ginny cut them off, and her brothers were silent immediately, quite scared. "Now Daphne, do you know what Malfoy is planning? I mean, she's going to dress as a girl, but she's Malfoy, she must have an ulterior motive or something."

Daphne frowned. "I actually asked her that, but she just said she was going to burn some bridges or something like that. What does it mean?"

"It's a muggle saying.", Harry, Hermione and Justin simultaneously said, as the three muggle-raised people from the group. "It means to do something after which you can't go back anymore.", Justin explained further.

"Makes sense.", Susan commented. "If she confirms that she's a girl, thereby the whole Lucius-is-a-liar story, she won't inherit his title and such, that'll all go to some distant male relative. Can't imagine her father being thrilled about that, so she might even be kicked out of the family all together."

The conversation was broken off at that point, for the huge wooden doors of the great hall burst open, and in strode… A pretty young girl with shoulder length white-blonde hair and a very slender figure. She stood there for a moment, dwarfed by the colossal entryway, until she spotted our friends at the Hufflepuff table and approached them with a rigidly straight back and a determined glint in her eyes. When she arrived, the silence was deafening.

"Erm, I realize that I never made the best of impressions on you, but if you'll let me, I'd like to explain."

Everyone looked at Harry, who was after all, the arch nemesis of the person that faced him. Harry however looked at Hermione, whom he usually deployed for making important decisions. Hermione looked from Harry's expectant gaze to everyone looking at Harry and sighed.

"Sixty seconds Malfoy, this'd better be good."

"Okay, well…", the girl began nervously. "What you must understand is, that my father completely indoctrinated me. He made me pretend to be a boy, but said that it was because he wanted me to be the heir to the Malfoy family, even if I got male siblings, so I admired him for his cunningness. Only this morning, due to the newspaper, did I find out that it was all because he had abused my mother so horribly upon hearing that his firstborn was female that she wouldn't ever have children again." She hesitated as she saw the shocked faces of her audience.

"Oh, you didn't get around to the more detailed article on page fourteen yet, I see. Anyway, that's why I used to look up to him and approve of anything he did, even if I didn't agree with it."

Hermione snorted, and asked mockingly but with a serious undertone: "What happened to pureblood supremacy, Malfoy?"

"I'm getting to that bit. You see, that's one of those things I didn't agree about with my father. That's why I was such an extremist, I didn't want him to notice it. I know that my acting that way probably destroyed any possibility of mutual respect, but I wanted you to at least have all the facts. And well, I guess that it must seem suspicious to be seeking out a bunch of people I supposedly hate, especially the one that just ruined my financial situation, but…"

Malfoy seemed to brace herself as she finished her sentence.

"Bones, Granger, Potter, Weasley, Weasley and Weasley, and errr, those other associates of yours, I'd like to make a public apology."

"Isn't saying that the pureblood equivalent of groveling at someone's feet begging for mercy?", Hermione asked in general.

"Yeah, it is.", both Susan and Daphne replied.

"Well, in that case Malfoy, I'll give you a chance if you'll go to the Yule ball with me in a dress.", Harry said, after some consideration. Malfoy just nodded, looking as if she thought this was so unrealistic that she must be dreaming and therefore she might as well go along with it.

"Wow, Harry, did you just ask a girl to a ball without panicking or even blushing?", was Ginny Weasley's amazed reaction. The girl knew all too well what he had been like before when dealing with romance-related matters.

"Erm, if you're thinking about when you used to have a crush on me… I kind of already thought Malfoy looked hot back then, so I supposed I was gay, and freaked out when you went after me because I didn't know how to deal with it. Not that you're not nice or anything…" Now Harry did blush.

"Ah, that makes sense! For the record, now that I got so much closer to Lee I figured out that that silly crush on you was more hero-worshipping than anything else.", Ginny exclaimed, after which Fred and George jumped up as if they were electrocuted. Murderous, betrayed expressions appeared on their faces as they glared at Lee Jordan.

"Excuse us, our friends…"

"…but we're going to have a little talk with our 'friend' here…"

"…to determine just how close he's gotten to our baby sister!"

"Uh-oh.", Ginny mumbled with slight concern as her overprotective twin brothers dragged her boyfriend away. "Reckon they'll leave his head attached?"

"His head probably, they wouldn't want to get expelled. I can't vouch for certain other body parts though.", was Cedric's not-so-reassuring answer.

Consequently, the group of friends fell back into easy conversation. Malfoy just stood there uncertainly, until Hermione shuffled over a bit and nodded at the now empty seat between Daphne and her, which Malfoy took. The two Slytherins could have been twins, sitting next to each other dressed in exactly the same robes, both with light blonde hair and aristocratic features.

"Hey, what should I call you now?", Daphne asked Malfoy, scrutinizing the girl beside her.

"What do you mean?", Harry wondered.

"Not even on first name terms with your date, are you?", she retorted with a raised eyebrow.

"What? Of course I can call her… Oh, Draco doesn't really fit a girl, does it?" He blushed and averted his eyes. Malfoy just shook her head amused.

"I suppose I should change it. I can't think up anything really fitting though."

"Perhaps a female variation on 'Draco'.", Ginny said thoughtfully. "That will feel familiar at least."

"Dracolie perhaps?", Susan offered.

"Merlin no! That sounds like a vegetable or something, like… Like broccoli!", Malfoy exclaimed, her audience snickered.

"Dracona then?", was Hermione's contribution, and Malfoy briefly considered it.

"Hmmm… Better than 'Dracolie', but it doesn't sound very feminine.", she finally said.

"Yeah, almost sounds like one of those guys from a Viking movie.", Justin added with a chuckle. Harry, the only other one except Hermione to get the muggle reference due to his upbringing, burst out laughing.

"Harry, you're taking her to the ball, you think of something!", Hermione huffed irritated.

"Erm, your name means 'dragon', doesn't it?", he began.

"Yeah, it's the Latin word for it.", Malfoy apprehensively agreed.

"Hermione, you know stuff. What is 'dragon' in some other languages?"

"Well, in Japanese it's 'Doragon'.", she said, consulting her mental dictionary.

"Hey, I'm not getting a Japanese name! I'm not like that Chang girl from Ravenclaw or something!", Malfoy interjected.

"She's Chinese.", Cedric corrected, quite familiar with his persistent stalker.

"Whatever, I'm still not getting a Japanese name!"

"You could make it 'Dora', that doesn't sound all that bad.", Ginny sighed, trying to placate them.

"I already have a cousin called Nymphadora, it's too similar."

"Whatever. You could go with Germanic, that's an ancient language, so it should be posh enough for our spoiled little she-ferret.", Hermione interrupted before it became an argument.

"What's dragon there then?", Harry asked her.

"Lind. The common girl name 'Belinda' is derived from it."

Malfoy nodded thoughtfully. "That sounds nice. I don't want a common name though, so I'll make it Delinda. That way I won't even have to get new monogrammed pajamas."

"Pajamas? Won't you get a nightdress now that you're officially a girl then?", Daphne wondered idly.

"No! They're annoying to sleep in.", the newly declared Delinda huffed, which earned her some giggles.

"Wait a sec, Malfoy, you consider yourself some sort of princess, but you won't wear nightdresses?", Hermione asked incredulously, and Delinda didn't dignify this with a response.

The rest of the lunch hour passed amicably. Yes, archrivals don't become friends overnight, but by starting over, these people might just manage to acquire friendship, after some time at any rate.

* * *

When Harry sat alone in the common room that night, he was surprised to see an owl flying in his direction. Only when he noticed that 'Pronglet' was scrawled across the little parcel carried by the animal did it make sense.

"Sirius.", Harry muttered as he opened the enclosed letter, "What do you have to say?"

That question was easily answered.

_Hey Pronglet,_

_Hope you're doing well pup, and Scuttles too, with all the tournament stuff she has to deal with. I read that letter of hers in the Prophet today, brilliant move! Read that article on the front page too, unbelievable huh. I heard my cousin Cissa is now finally trying to get rid of that slimy git Malfoy, which is good, because she used to be sort of nice before she married him._

_Anyway, back to my actual reason for writing. I figured that with the Yule ball coming up, I'd better give you your Christmas present early. It used to be your father's, Moony and I stumbled across it in my old school trunk back here._

_Shame you can't come over for Christmas, but I understand, with the Yule ball and all._

_Yours,_

_Padfoot_

After reading this, Harry eagerly ripped open the package. It contained a silvery mirror with a lot of runes inscribed along the edge.

"Sirius thinks I need a mirror for the Yule ball? Do I look THAT bad?", Harry idly wondered, until he noticed the note stuck to the back of the thing.

_Pronglet,_

_Tell this thing my nickname, and you'll get all the advice on dating girls you'll ever need._

_Padfoot_

"Padfoot.", Harry told the mirror, feeling very stupid for talking to an inanimate object. That's when Sirius' head appeared in it.

"Harry!"

"Sirius, seriously? You're getting me advice on girls as a Christmas present?" Sirius guffawed, but Harry's stern glare kept him from making a Sirius-serious pun.

"No, I'm giving you an easy and secure way to communicate with me as a Christmas present, the girl advice is why I sent it early." Slightly disappointed when his godson didn't blush as girls were mentioned, Sirius immediately started a rant about purposely embarrassing things, hoping that would do the trick.

"So, what you must ALWAYS keep in mind when you corner a girl planning to ask…"

"Whoa Padfoot, dim it down! I have a date for the Yule ball already.", Harry interrupted him.

"Seriously! Whom? Do tell!", Sirius cried out enthusiastically, all disappointment forgotten.

"A second cousin of yours, actually.", he smirked.

"Oh, really, I didn't think Nymphadora was still at Hogwarts! Isn't she a bit old for you?", Sirius frowned. He vaguely remembered Remus saying something about running into her in the Leaky Cauldron recently.

"No, not her, whomever she is. Your other cousin, Malfoy." Sirius' head temporarily disappeared as he fainted on the spot.

The rest of the conversation can be easily imagined.

* * *

"Do we tell Him?", Alastor Moody, a.k.a. Barty Crouch Jr. asked Peter Pettigrew, huddled next to him in the draughty hallway of the deserted manor. They had gathered in an emergency meeting to discuss whether or not to inform their lord of Malfoy's misfortunes. Sure, Lucius had dug his own grave, but their lord was known for abreacting his anger on his minions.

"He'll find out when he returns, and then we'd be punished.", the rat-faced little man replied. The not much bigger scar-faced man however, was not impressed with this argument.

"We already told him that Potter is the champion, rather than the Granger chit, so he'd kill us anyway, nothing to lose."

"Well, I'm not telling him. I'm just stupid, not suicidal!", Pettigrew cried out, and Crouch nodded.

"Quite right, quite right." He shuddered as he knocked back another shot of polyjuice potion.

"We'll think of something, I need to get back to the school now."

Never before had a truthful article in the Prophet created quite such an uproar.


	13. 13 - Badger Pride

(A/N)

Whoa, I'm keeping it short today, for over here it's past midnight already, and I am really tired.

So, Flyingberry, Racethom, Sampdoria, Mobulis, Rosemary Lily Marie, Nikyta and Angel 897, thanks for your lovely reviews.

Little and apparently necessary reminder: Malfoy is female, so neither she nor Harry is gay. As Malfoy has now finally revealed that she's a girl, she decided to take a female name, so she shall henceforth be known as Delinda Malfoy. Hope that clears up any confusion.

And indeed, creature ancestry would probably keep a pureblood from being a pureblood. However, those people like to keep their skeletons locked nice and tightly in their closets, so they'd simply have their not-so-human relations suffer 'a tragic accident', and then claim they were human all along, and nobody dares to go against it because the ministry is under their influence. With 'pureblood', I therefore mean more like something along the lines of 'considered a pureblood by society'.

My special thanks for the advice from Racethom about clothes, martial arts and potions and such. I already had half a plan to do something with muggle fabric, where Hermione gets her mum to make a sewing pattern of her school uniform which she sends to Mrs. Weasley as a Chrismas pattern along with a bunch of fabric so that the Weasleys can save money on school expanses, but I'll need to work that out better. It will be a while though before Hermione starts making major changes in the wizarding world, like in the field of potions, but as I am in fact quite educated in both chemistry and biology, I'll probably work it into the story at a later point, but for the next few chapters I'm concentrating on the plot and the relationships. Yay, Bill's date with Hermione will finally be in the next one!

… Disclaimer… Ugh, those disclaimers are starting to seriously annoy me…

And enjoy the chapter!

* * *

**Chapter 13 – Badger Pride**

Hermione's dress for the Yule ball was a work of beauty. She'd found it in a muggle thrift store, and it suited her perfectly. The fitted bodice enveloped her snugly, the many ruffled layers of the skirt hung around her as if she drifted on her own personal cloud. The colors were the best thing though; the dress in its entirety was made of silk, golden silk, the gold fading into a foot-wide trim of red at the ruffles.

Wearing it, Hermione looked the superlative of Gryffindor, if such a thing existed. Those were Cedric's words in fact, which he spoke upon being shown a picture of it by Hermione. It was therefore that she hesitated a little, dress laid out on her bed, charms book open next to it, wand pointing at it. She hesitated perhaps five seconds, but in the end, she casted the charms anyway.

This is what she thought about when walking around the lake with Cedric two days later.

"Cedric, remember my Yule ball dress?", she started.

"Ugh, if you're going to talk girl stuff, you should get Ginny of Fleur or Susan or whomever, get your fashionista dorm mates for all I care, but…"

"Hush, Ceddy, deep breaths, you'll live."

"Sorry.", Cedric said sheepishly. "Natural male reaction, it's genetic, I swear!"

"Like you even know what genetics are!", Hermione retorted bemusedly.

"Well, you blame everything on them, so I see no reason why I wouldn't be allowed to."

Hermione muttered something that sounded like 'men', so Cedric quickly tried to placate her.

"Erm, what was it then, that you wanted to tell?", he asked apprehensively.

"My dress. Remember the colors?"

"Sure, hard to forget. Red and gold, as Gryffindor as you can get."

Hermione nodded and took a deep breath.

"Well… I changed them.

Cedric stopped dead in his tracks at that, gaping like a goldfish. It took him a while to regain his senses, but when he did he blurted out: "Red and gold finally went out of season then?"

Hermione whacked him in the back of the head.

"Of course not! They're fashionable as ever. I just want to make a different kind of statement."

"You mean you don't want to emphasize your house anymore after The Incident with The Traitor,?", Cedric said with a frown. He never even called Ron by his name anymore, instead referring to him as 'The Traitor', and to the rape attempt as 'The Incident'.

"No, The Traitor isn't even a Gryffindor anymore. What I want to stress is that whilst Gryffindor is a perfectly fine house, it isn't necessarily 'the best'. In fact, I want to convey that all houses are equal, especially the one that is most often ignored. The colors I chose, Cedric, are black and yellow."

"The Hufflepuff colors? What the…"

"You know very well how much you mean to me. Throughout the years, I've always supported Harry, but you were the one who supported me. When I had to be strong to get Harry trough his latest misadventure, you were always there for me to confide in, to admit all my fears and insecurities to that I couldn't afford anyone else to know of. You might not have realized it, but that saved my sanity. I shudder to think what my mental state would have been if not for you.", Hermione paused, and looked her dearest friend squarely in the eyes.

"Likewise, I'll always owe Susan, Hannah, Justin and Ernie for coming to my rescue during The Incident. Sure, I am a Gryffindor and proud of it, and I have great friends in my house. I am befriended with many Ravenclaws too, even with the occasional Slytherin, those I trust the most are probably the 'Puffs. Put that down to your house's legendary loyalty if you like, but your house has loads of admirable people in it, and I'm sick and tired of others thinking that their houses have more or better redeeming qualities.

Where's the fun in being cunning when it drives away all your friends? What use is bravery when the men making a stand beside you aren't loyal to you? Why treasure your intelligence when you lack the zeal to do something with it? Each house has great qualities, but those of Hufflepuff are what brings out the best in them. Your house is ghastly underrated Cedric, the 'Puffs have been overlooked for centuries, discarded as weaklings, and I'm bloody well going to change it!"

"Well, give them a speech like that, and I'm sure my housemates will be all for it!", Cedric agreed with a smile, and they shook hands on it. After a moment he spoke again though, with a thoughtful frown.

"Didn't your theory say that the Hufflepuffs are Slytherins?"

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean I'll allow you dirty Slytherins to spoil Hufflepuff's good name.", Hermione said as if this were obvious.

Blushing slightly, Cedric tried to divert the conversation from dangerous grounds. "So, you'll be wearing Hufflepuff colors, but knowing you there is a whole elaborate plot, so what else?"

"Dance lessons.", Hermione simply said.

"But we can dance pretty good already!", Cedric said. And they could. Hermione was very graceful, and she could do all the moves perfectly. She only lacked the imagination necessary to put different moves together into a dance, but the male partner was supposed to take the lead anyway, and Cedric, who had been taught by his mother when he was younger, really was a natural at that.

"Yes, but the rest can't. I spoke Susan about it yesterday. In Hufflepuff, there are only a few purebloods who were taught it as part of their upbringing, like her, but even amongst those she is the only decent one. There are some muggleborn and halfblood girls who did ballroom dancing as a sport, but if we want to impress the school, we'll need to train them, especially the boys."

"Speaking of Susan, do you know whom she's going with?", Cedric wondered, momentarily distracted at the thought of the pretty young girl.

"Yes, she accepted when one of the Weasley twins asked her, she still doesn't know which one."

"Ah! No… Attachments there then?", he clarified, just to be certain.

"No, she's still a free woman.", Hermione stated, scrutinizing her best friend. She had noticed the little glances between the two of them, lately. Hadn't liked it at first, she was very protective of Cedric, but she trusted and liked Susan, so she had decided to let nature take its course. The two had grown a lot closer since the start of the tournament, as they were both part of Hermione's unofficial support crew. And just why would the girl run to Cedric upon hearing that she's betrothed to Malfoy, when she has much closer friends in her own year?

Cedric quickly started discussing dance-related matters again, and before they completed their walk around the lake they had hammered out all the details.

"So, Susan eh?", Hermione slyly threw into the conversation just when Cedric started to feel safe. He was compelled to swear, but refrained from doing so in front of a lady, 'lady' being questionable terminology here.

"Yeah, what about her…?", he asked apprehensively.

"Reckon she'll look real nice when she's all dressed up for the ball.", Hermione simply commented. It took a while, but then the meaning hit, Cedric suddenly understood that his friend must be thinking that he regretted asking her to the Yule ball because he would rather have brought Susan.

"Mione, don't feel guilty for claiming me or anything! Whatever way you found out about it, I fancy Susan indeed. I'm not quite ready to ask her to a ball yet though, I want to woo her into submission with nice, private, romantic dates, rather than dragging her into such a grand affair immediately, where everyone will see us as a couple before she's had the chance to decide if she even wants to be with me. She knows you and I are just friendly with each other anyway, she's a girl after all, your kind seems to always know such things."

Hermione turned pale. "Oh no! The Apocalypse must be near, a boy is actually being considerate, this cannot be!" Cedric just shook his head amusedly.

"I'll try to tell her before the ball, the fact that I'm not going with her doesn't mean I won't reserve at least one dance with her."

Hermione hugged her best friend tightly, glad that he'd found a person as nice as Susan that might just become his girlfriend.

* * *

"Okay people, you know the drill by now, we'll go over these moves once more!", Hermione cried out as Cedric started the magical wireless once again. They demonstrated a basic quickstep, their moves mirrored by four neat rows of yellow-and-black-clad couples.

Hermione had indeed given a speech, backed up by Cedric who was without a doubt the most popular amongst the 'Puffs, and the entire house had been quite looking forward to showing up the rest of the school.

The girls had all readily agreed to participate, most of them loved dancing, and the rest simply considered it fun. They had also hexed the boys into compliance, until everyone was paired off, even those with dates from another house. With good music and comprehensible instructions, everyone progressed nicely, and had a lot of fun. Cedric had found a wavelength on the wireless that constantly emitted ballroom music, and Hermione had cast a Sonorus charm on the tiny contraption, to make it heard throughout the entire Hufflepuff common room, which was filled to the brim with all the dancing people.

* * *

"Oh Pomona, I think we see next year's headboy there, and the upcoming Gryffindor fifth year girls' prefect!", McGonagall said astounded, one of her rare smiles gracing her lips.

As Hogwarts' wards alerted them to the presence of a Gryffindor in the Hufflepuff common room, the two houses' respective heads had immediately hurried to the crime scene. What they found was nothing like their expectations though, where they had thought they'd have to break up something inappropriate in the dormitories, they found the entire Hufflepuff population enraptured with a bootcamp-style dance lesson, quite oblivious to the two teachers in the doorway.

"They're quite a team aren't they?", professor Sprout agreed nodding, as she watched her favorite badger dance gracefully with her colleagues favorite lion.

The two women watched as Hermione gave Cedric a quick embrace and a sly grin before she shoved him down in a half-crouched position that vaguely resembled a bow right in front of Susan Bones, who giggled and took his hand. Hermione chuckled and shook her head as she watched them, before literally waltzing off in Justin Finch-Fletchley's arms.

"Uh oh Ms. Granger, better not have your Mr. Weasley see this.", McGonagall commented, suddenly remembering her efforts to get Hermione and Bill together. The B.A.H.-Union was doing well, more and more people were joining them. The Weasly twins were proving to be quite an asset, and McGonagall had given Charlie unofficial clearance to try to smuggle Bill into the school during the ball. She'd be meeting Ginny, Fleur, Susan and Hannah later that afternoon to discuss designs for badges and a logo.

"Yes, now you mention it, I shudder to think what he might do in one of his jealous fits upon seeing this.", professor Sprout agreed with her, misinterpreting the statement.

"No, not that one, he can't bother her anymore. I mean one of the other Mr. Weasleys, the eldest brother."

"The Mr. Weasley that was so persistent in his efforts to visit Ms. Granger after the dragon fiasco?"

"That one yes.", McGonagall confirmed.

"They like each other?", the Hufflepuff head of house asked with a thoughtful frown.

"Quite a bit, it's obvious really."

"Minerva, I know that look, don't think I've forgotten it after having been yours and Poppy's favorite victim for years. You two are playing matchmaker again."

"Well… Now that you now anyway, you might as well join us.", the normally stern professor said sheepishly.

"Suppose I should, to keep an eye on you two and all…", Sprout agreed after a moments hesitation.

It was silent for a while then, until McGonagall spoke.

"You wanted to join us all along, didn't you?"

Sprout never denied it.

* * *

"What the hell is up Char? You know just how bloody much floo powder it costs to make a floo call to Romania, don't you?", Bill Weasley yelled trough the floo in his parents' home at eight o'clock in the evening exactly, like his brother had requested per owl.

"Yeah, whatever. Remember what the twins told us last summer, about that tunnel from Honeydukes that gets you into Hogwarts?", Charlie interjected off-handedly.

"Sure…"

"Well, I'll be able to take a day off when that Yule ball happens there, and I really fancy seeing Fleur again, especially now she'll be all dressed up, so I figured we could sneak in together via that tunnel.", the dragon tamer began until he was interrupted.

"Fleur? You mean Delacour, the French part-veela?"

"Yes, her…", Charlie said with a dreamy look on his face. "I've kept contact with her, my owl really hates me now for having to fly back 'n forth between here and England all the time."

The stocky redhead suddenly became all business again. "Anyway, are you in?"

"I guess.", the lanky redhead replied, thinking of a beautiful brunette girl, the very one that he'd be meeting that Saturday.

It seemed like the Yule ball would become interesting indeed.


	14. 14 - Oddest Proposal Ever

(A/N)

Finally finished! I wanted to get this done, but I just sort of lacked inspiration for a couple of days. I also don't have any pre-planned stuff anymore, and I'm incredibly busy for the next few weeks, so updates are probably going to be even slower for some time.

Anyway, I hope you like the date. It's all very innocent and friendly now, but I wanted to wait with the true romance blablabla until the Yule ball, so bear with me.

And yeah, I previously mentioned that I didn't want Bill to find out about the mysterious consultant from Gringotts before the summer, but I decided that I didn't want the two of them to have secrets between them, and this seemed funny. Poor Bill, I hope he doesn't have a concussion from all the head damage I made him suffer!

Now, to my wonderful reviewers: Flyingberry, Feminist4ever, Sampdoria, Pjgarlach, Rosemary Lily Marie and Angel897, I'm glad you enjoyed it.

I know indeed that I mix up 'through' and 'trough' sometimes, that's because the spelling check doesn't notice that it's wrong. I'll try to pay attention though, thanks for the warning!

And I also remember some other stories where champions' names were entered through the air, including one rather funny one where a RC helicopter was used. It's so obvious, I can't imagine nobody thought of it.

Now, disclaimer, don't own Harry Potter, blablabla…

Enjoy the chapter!

* * *

**Chapter 14 – Oddest Proposal Ever**

Quarter past twelve that Saturday, Hermione cursed the fact that your feet still leave footprints when you walk through snow whilst disillusioned. Ginny had been very curious about Hermione's lunch appointment, and Hermione hadn't felt like telling the redhead that it was with her eldest brother. Bad decision apparently, for now the girl had decided to follow Hermione as she made her way to the Three Broomsticks.

"I know loads of spells. Hundreds of them.", she thought as she walked, "But why in the name of Merlin's kinky underwear did I never bother to learn one that removes footprints?"

She dodged into a less crowded road in fear of being knocked over, ran past two blocks of houses, ran halfway back and then left through a side-alley. She hid in a second-hand bookstore for five minutes, checking through the window if Ginny was still on her tail, and then went to the pub that was her actual destination. She entered through the back door just for good measure, and only lifted her disillusionment charm once she reached the front door, where Bill already stood waiting.

Bill was evidently under the impression that she'd use the front door, and probably planned to startle her.

"Hah, I can do one better than that!", Hermione thought as she sneaked up on him and stood on tiptoes behind him to whisper in his ear.

"Ahoy me matey.", she said in a threatening pirate voice. Bill jumped, startled indeed, and bumped his head hard on the protruding cross-beam above the door.

"Arrr, captain.", he answered, smiling at her with slightly watery eyes. He was confused when he noticed Hermione frown at that for a moment.

"Hey, what are you frowning for, I'm the one that knocked his head!", he grumbled.

"Nah, nothing about that, it's just this stupid nickname that Harry insists on calling me…"

"He calls you 'Captain'?", Bill asked curiously, but Hermione shook her head, but didn't tell him the real nickname, as he would then figure out that she worked for Gringotts, and she didn't want to divulge that particular piece of information just yet.

"No, but it doesn't matter anyway. Now how have you been? Glad to be back in England at last?", she asked Bill, trying to divert him.

"Sure.", he answered, pretending to buy into it. "I miss the nice weather, but I'm happy to be rid of all the sand, and they have me working with this absolutely brilliant new consultant which has been great." He stopped for a second before adding nonchalantly: "Now what was that nickname that Harry calls you again?"

"Oh, he calls me 'Captain Scuttles'.", Hermione answered, succesfully distracted. "Honestly, like just 'Scuttles' wasn't bad enough already!"

CRACK! Was the sound which Bill's head made as it connected with the crossbeam once again.

"Oy there! Stop molesting the premises!", madam Rosmerta yelled towards the couple from where she stood at the bar, shaking her fist at them but secretly smiling. Poppy, Pomona and Minerva had introduced her to the B.A.H.-Union when they stopped by for a drink yesterday.

"Anything to get him to come here more often!", the woman thought, remembering him clearly from his schooldays when the female half of the alliteration-loving wizarding world had called him the Hogwarts' Handsome Headboy. Yes, they definitely didn't make headboys like that anymore, just think of last year's one, Bill's brother Percy Weasley. Nice enough lad that one was, but he had neither his brother's good looks, nor that subtle charisma.

Throughout the years, Rosmerta had had many Weasleys in her humble establishment. She remembered Arthur from when he was still in school and she was just a little girl, helping her mother at the bar during the Hogsmeade weekends. She knew Molly from when she was still a Prewitt, a Gryffindor in the year below Arthur who always hung out with her twin brothers Fabian and Gideon. The couple eloped straight out of school, and had a son seven and a half month later that was quite obviously too big to be premature. William, named after his grandfather Prewitt in an effort to placate the upset man, would soon be joined by no less than six siblings.

Rosmerta had always considered Bill the best in the bunch. His little sister was a close second, she was very much like him at that age, but she had unfortunately inherited her mother's infamous temper too. Charlie was very friendly and really amusing once you fed him enough butterbeer, but on the whole more of a 'strong but silent' type, a good man, but not one of a kind. The aforementioned Percy had always been a little quirky, with his rather pompous attitude. Once he reached his fifth year though, when he became a prefect, and Hermione founded the study groups, he found a positive outlet for his ambitious nature and changed for the better. The twins were a bit careless and loud, but compensated by being kind, helpful and bloody hilarious. Ronald however had always been a lost cause. Rosmerta had always seen this, and considered it confirmed when his Hogsmeade privilege was retracted some days previously. Rumor had it that the prat had actually tried to rape a girl. Well, at least his brothers were nothing like that, especially the eldest. That one looked a damn lot better than the foodstain-covered dolt.

Bill Weasley had been a handsome teenager, but he had grown into a stunning man. Tall but lean, muscled without being burly. His smooth skin pale despite continuous exposure to the Egyptian sun, covered with light freckles in the general area of his nose, and with ginger stubble on his chin. His long hair, fang earring and leather clothes gave him a roguish appearance, yet his excellent manners made him seem civilized. He was a special young man that deserved a special young lady, and he appeared to have found this in Hermione Granger, who currently tended to his injured head.

"I should take a photo.", she thought as she saw Hermione gently stroking the sore spot on Bill's head, where he'd bumped it. "And it surely wouldn't be to salivate over at a later date.", she added mentally. "No, all to, erm, contribute to the cause.", she assured herself once more. She hoped Ginny or one of the other Union members that resided in Hogwarts would stop by this afternoon, they had much too discuss. Much to discuss and much more to guess apparently, for the couple didn't sit down in the pub where she could overhear them, but left the building to an undetermined location.

Rosmerta was quite disgruntled to lose her chance to spy, but smiled as she noticed a bag on the man's arm, obviously filled with food. A private picnic beats a rendez-vous in a pub any day.

* * *

"Yeah, it isn't much of a picnic basket.", Bill admitted ten minutes later as they sat down on a bench ten minutes later, looking at the simple cotton grocery bag that he had brought. "I didn't want to look to obvious though, and at least the food is good. Freshly stolen from mum's kitchen!"

Hermione smiled at his antics. It was such a manly thing to do, to get your mother to give you food for a date.

"She really won't miss it. She bakes a lot when she has stuff on her mind, like now." Bill could have slapped himself for that thoughtless reference to the Ron situation. He pretty much wanted to crucio himself as he saw Hermione's smile disappear. In fact, he was pretty sure that his sister would do a crucio on him if he told her this, Ginny had been pestering him a lot lately with rather odd letters.

Luckily for Bill, Hermione decided to tactfully change the subject.

"So, why did you decide to smash your head into the woodwork that second time?", she asked him.

"The nickname.", he answered, a maniacal glint appearing in his eyes. Hermione had apparently forgotten about that, for otherwise she wouldn't have reminded him. Now however, she looked quite mortified.

"Oh…", she murmured. Bill just snickered.

"How eloquent. You know, I recently got a new colleague. She's really mysterious, no one's ever seen her. She only communicates with the office through owl post, nevertheless she's absolutely brilliant. She actually reminds me a lot of you. The weirdest thing is, she goes by the nickname 'Ms. Scuttles'. Quite the coincidence, don't you think?"

"Just shut your mouth, will you. Yes, you figured it out Mr. Gingerwing, are you happy now?", Hermione demanded, crossing her arms.

"Hey, no need to get all grumpy!", Bill huffed. "I won't tell anyone else. And for the record, I think it's one hell of a prank that we've been corresponding for weeks but that I find out only now. The twins could learn a thing or two from you."

"They already do.", Hermione retorted with a smile of her own. "Honestly, who do you think helped them figure out all those things for their soon-to-be-jokeshop, like pricelists and the owl order service? For all their pranking talent, those two are seriously lacking organizational skills."

Bill shook his head, amused. "Don't let mum hear you say that!"

"Fred and George were meant to run a jokeshop. Your mother will realize that once their business is going strong. I know it will succeed, I've seen the entire plan. They'll be developing products as long as they're at Hogwarts, then run everything via mail for a year or two to gain funds and a reputation, and when they can afford it they'll get premises."

"Wow, such a well thought-out plan doesn't sound like them at al. It almost sounds easy this way!" Bill was clearly impressed.

"Well, I did say I helped them.", Hermione said, blushing bright red.

"So humble!", Bill smirked, stuffed a piece of cake into her mouth and slung one of his long arms around her shoulders.

Their conversation carried on very naturally. It was almost as if they were at the Burrow again, chatting over breakfast during those long gone summer days. Even Molly's homemade bread tasted the same when eaten here. It was no summer however, it was December and bitter cold. Before leading Hermione there, Bill had set up warming wards and privacy wards around the little park bench which they now shared. Hermione still considered it necessary though, to lean into Bill's side just a little bit more. In his turn, Bill thought it was much more comfortable to just hoist her into his lap altogether, which he happily did.

All in all, their very red faces alone probably radiated warmth enough to render the warming ward unnecessary. The privacy wards came in handy though, for about halfway through their lunch, Victor Krum appeared with a gaggle of giggling girls.

"Ruddy pumpkinhead.", Hermione commented, glaring at Krum as he passed their bench, oblivious to them.

"You still have world-famous quidditch players after you then?", Bill asked, noticing the burly Bulgarian.

"If you mean Krum, then yes. I swear, the guy gets more pervy every day. He's almost as bad as Cho Chang, and that girl really is a menace."

Bill looked faintly green as she said that. "You… You got female groupies too?"

"Oh no! Cho is all Cedric's. Fangirl, I mean. My groupies are all of the opposite gender. Cedric is not so lucky, I fear, he has a lot of quidditch idiots after him, because of the tight pants that go with quidditch gear apparently.", Hermione paused at seeing Bill's disturbed gaze. "Not that I ever spared those a second thought, I was quoting his fanmail there. We like to read our fanmail together, because it's so utterly laughable." She paused again, gathered her courage. "Ceddy and I are going to the ball together, present an united front against our stalkers and all that."

Bill flinched at the endearment. "That sounds like the typical adolescent 'we fancy each other but are still in denial so we think up a lame excuse' sort of excuse.", he remarked, dreading the possible replies.

Of all that he expected however, Hermione's actual reaction was not it. She laughed, hard.

"Oh, William! You don't know what sort of rumors I've been hearing. Blaise and Daphne reported that half the Slytherins are quite convinced that I regularly organize threesomes with Malfoy and Krum, and some 'Claws from the first year study group 'know' with absolute certainty that I have a secret fetish for professor Snape."

"Fascinating as your apparently quite diverse fictional lovelife is, I wonder what this has to do with Diggory?", Bill was getting curious now.

"Oh, yeah. Those I mentioned are pretty weird rumors, but honestly, I'd rank this one above them."

"You aren't really after Snape, are you?", Bill decided to verify, just to be sure.

"NO! William Weasley, what in the world are you thinking! About Cedric too, he is just too much like a brother to me. The very idea of fancying him feels like incest to me."

"Oh.", Bill stated dumbly. "Well, that's good to hear.

They were interrupted then, for their rather heated discussion had made them walk beyond the privacy wards, and Krum had spotted them. The champion immediately tried to pounce on Hermione, but Bill hexed him off her and pulled the girl back within the wards.

Hermione clung on to him tightly for a moment, shaking badly, but then she got mad.

"Ugh, those BLOODY IDIOTS! The Ronald affair should have taught them to behave, but no, they're bothering me like nothing ever happened. Never thought I'd even consider this option, but desperate times call for desperate measures. I should get a ring on my finger, for if I'm considered the property of another man, then it's my legal right to have those idiots beheaded. Perhaps that'll make them think twice about trying to force themselves on me!", Hermione ranted. Bill just stared up at her in awe. Never having seen her truly mad before, he was struck by how spectacular a sight it made.

"How on earth am I going to get my hands on an engagement ring though? No, no engagement ring, an engagement has to be registered, they'd know it's a fluke in moments. A promise ring then. Those are used in the wizarding world to signify a betrothal, for which the same rules count as for an engagement or marriage in the regards that my merry band of stalkers has to back off. Ugh, women are no bloody farm animals! Anyway, a promise ring will therefore do as well I suppose, no one will ever know that there's no man involved, but I'd have to check… Damn, I'll still have to find a way to get one, which I won't be able to do as a person that's both underage and female. Bloody archaic wizarding world, I'm a modern woman, why can't I buy a bloody promise ring here!"

"Breathe Hermione! I'll fetch one for you, you'd need to go to Diagon Alley for that anyway, which is easier for me.", Bill interjected. At that she simply flung her arms around him once again.

"Oh thank you William!", she mumbled, her voice slightly muffled by his hair. "I'll owe you forever!"

"Don't worry my dear Ms. Scuttles, and I actually have quite a taste in jewelry after dealing with artifacts in Egypt for years.", Bill softly answered her, not really realizing yet that he'd just all but proposed to the girl he loved. "By the way, Charlie and I are sneaking into Hogwarts during the Yule ball, I'll be able to hand it over then."

They both smiled, content in each others' arms, and then collected their stuff to walk back to the village, Hermione still had to go Christmas shopping with her friends.


	15. 15 - Yuletide Jubilation

(A/N)

I did warn you about the slower updates… But seeing just how huge this chapter is, I like to think it was worth the waiting. I'm still busy as hell over here, but I try to make time anyway, especially when I get such nice reviews. Alix33, Nikyta, Blinded in a bolthole, Gryffindork93, LeonaMasha and Bma925, thanks again for all the advice and support.

Sweden indeed turns out not to have Alps after all. I took the term 'Swiss' in the Swiss Alps to mean 'Swedish', but now that I looked it up on the ever-helpful Wikipedia, I found out that it means 'Switzerlandish', or whatever. Let's just say that the Swedish Short-Snout migrated there, to cover up this shameful mistake.

I'm glad that Bill and Hermione are finally together now, I just couldn't wait. The ring won't be magically binding, they don't need that, but it will probably have some enchantments. Awww, they're so cute!

Er, the usual disclaimer, don't own Harry Potter.

Enjoy!

* * *

**Chapter 15 – Yuletide Jubilation**

Minverva McGonagall awoke early on Christmas morning, disturbed by some loud noises that issued from Gryffindor tower. Decades of experience in distinguishing the echoes that travelled through Hogwarts' walls, she soon determined that the crime scene must be the sixth year boys' dorm.

"Not those blasted Weasley twins again…", she muttered as she grabbed her tartan dressing gown, her legs slung over the edge of the bed. Those boys were going to drive her to an early grave if it went on like this. She flinched when her feet reached the cold stone floor, but just then a really REALLY loud, shrill female voice pierced through the frosty morning air.

"BOYS! Never heard of silencing charms, or do you actually WANT detentions?", was what McGonagall could decipher from the noise, the old castle really had great acoustics. The old woman could even swear it had been Ms. Granger who was yelling so loud.

The noise died down after that though, so McGonagall simply went to sleep again, albeit with a not entirely clear conscience. Her dreams would be plagued by redheads, electric guitars, and oddly enough herself in an army uniform with a bottle of Scottish whisky in one hand and a microphone in the other. Luckily for her, she wouldn't ever remember this.

* * *

Hermione pretended to be angry, whilst deep inside she was enormously smug. Knowing that she'd have to stay up late the next day for the ball, she had chugged a dose of sleeping draught strong enough to let her sleep soundly for eight hours exactly. Knowing how Fred and George felt about Christmas morning, the one morning they voluntarily got up early except for their birthday, she'd made sure to go to bed very early the night before. And of course, 5:30 prompt they had been causing a ruckus in the common room.

"Who is your favorite bookworm now?", she asked teasingly. The twins just stared up at the runes that she'd quickly scribbled all over the doorpost with a borrowed quill, they glowed a faint blue from residual magic after she had charged them. Knowing that she couldn't stop her three friends from causing mayhem, she had decided to at least contain it within their room, so she had warded the door.

"This will block any noise that we make in here? Like ANY noise?", Lee Jordan asked, out of the three sixth year boys the only one capable of speech at that moment.

"No, only voices. I want Fred and George to be able to hear if you're defiling Ginny in here." This actually got a response out of them, they glared at their friend first, and then turned to Hermione with matching mischievous smirks.

"Can you put this on our room at the Burrow too?", they asked in unison.

"Just go fetch the others.", she muttered, shaking her head. "Opening presents is much more fun when you're together."

It took exactly fourteen minutes and twenty-seven seconds for them to abduct the rest of their Gryffindor friends from the various dorms, Hermione had kept track on her watch.

She had gone to wake up Ginny, which she did quietly and subtly, whilst Fred emerged from the other dorm, Harry slung over his shoulder caveman-style. By some miracle of nature Harry's dormmates had slept through this, except for Neville, who came out of the room with a confused expression on his face and clinging a stuffed hippogriff to his chest.

He was absolutely mortified when he noticed Hermione and Ginny standing there, looking at the toy with raised eyebrows. The two girls quickly appeased him and promised him not to tell Hannah, his girlfriend with whom he was going to the ball. After that they dragged the poor boy along to the sixth year's dorm, where everyone started attacking various colors of wrapping paper.

The most astounding present that Hermione received was the one from Susan. The 'Puff had already promised to get her something outrageously expensive to express her thanks for the help with the betrothal contract, and apparently decided that an Inventor Permit would be appropriate. Those were not only expensive, but could only be acquired by the right people, which meant that Hermione wouldn't be able to get one even if she could scrunch up the money.

One of the ministry's ways of curbing the potential success of muggleborns was the usage of Inventor Permits. To be able to get a patent on an invention, or to take credit for research, one needed such a permit. The ministry claimed it was for their protection, because experimenting was of course dangerous business.

The truth however, is that they handed those out to every witch and wizard with some gold and the right name, but no one else, which ruled out nearly all the competent people. Even Severus Snape had only gained his permit due to his supposed loyalty to Voldemort, for he was a halfblood with a muggle name, his only magical relation his mother who was disinherited and thus had little money to her name.

Being well-connected and ridiculously wealthy, Susan and her aunt had apparently enough influence not only to acquire one, but for it to be a blank one on which they could fill in Hermione's name. Once signed, such a permit could not be revoked, so Hermione was a very happy girl. This opened a whole new range of options to her.

The only present with a small chance to top that was Bill's. She didn't know for sure yet, for he had sent her a card which said:

_My lovely lady Scuttles,_

_If you want a Christmas present, you can come collect it at 11 pm tonight at the front door of the castle._

_Merry Christmas!_

_Your Mr. Gingerwing_

She wondered what it would be. She had sent Bill a new wand holster, for she had of course his old one. It was a lot like his old one, a dragon hide arm holster with a lot of runes on it. She had used Horntail hide, for nostalgia's sake, and done the runes herself. She'd also decided to introduce Bill to the wonderful muggle invention called Velcro, with straps made of that he'd be able to fix it to his arm himself. Not that she minded helping him with it.

Furthermore there was a jewelryish thing for in her hair from Cedric, with a note that claimed that he was just fulfilling his obligations as her Yule ball date. It was beautiful, silver with frail golden crabs dancing over it, and it looked exactly right with her hair color, it brought out the silver and golden strands between the chocolate brown.

The whole fourth year study group had put their money together to buy Hermione a load of clothes that were more form-fitting than she usually wore, even some people from the other years' groups had chipped in. Hermione had to admit that she looked a lot better in those than in her old baggy clothes. Now that the tournament had finally made her confident to leave the cover provided by all that excess fabric, she was very grateful for it. She also had to laugh when the card that came along with it stated that none of the boys had participated in buying any of the clothes.

Ginny had decided to buy her friend clothes to, lingerie to be precise. Hermione knew what it was as soon as she noticed the message scrawled across the wrapping paper, an order not to open the package in front of any males, and to try to keep it in one piece when Ginny's eldest brother ripped it from her body. She went very red and hid the package behind her back, Ginny threw her a wink and gestured for her to hide the present from Fleur too, which later turned out to be some more lingerie, but of the French kind, including a bikini that was positively scandalous.

Hermione was beaming with joy when she got an absolutely huge box of chocolate from Penelope Clearwater, with a card that reminded her that she had been the one who had set the older girl up with Percy Weasley, and that Percy had now proposed to her. Hermione wasn't allowed to say anything yet, but Penny promised her that she and Ginny would be bridesmaids. Hermione was very happy for her old friend Percy, he had become a good man, and knew for sure that Penny and he made each other happy.

She also got a Weasley sweater, Mrs. Weasley wanted her to know that she was considered part of the family.

The rest wasn't really uncommon, some books from Harry, Lee, Charlie and various other people, including a book on contraception methods from the twins, she really didn't know what to think of that. The only other surprise was the very last present, the one from Delinda, and the letter that came with it.

_My dear Gryffindorkish friends,_

_Merry Christmas to you all. I have hereby enclosed my presents for all of you, Hermione, Ginny, Lee, Fred, George, and of course Harry. I know they aren't much, but really, I couldn't afford anything of less plebeian quality._

_Yes, believe it or not, but I, the utterly amazing and of course exquisitely beautiful miss Malfoy am a little strapped for cash. The thing is, with my father locked up facing assault charges for what he did to my mother, neither she nor I can get access to the Malfoy fortune. On top of that, mother got a letter last year saying that she won't be able to use her dowry from the Black family anymore, unless she divorces Lucius, so we're broke as long as they're locked in a court case. I don't even have a trust fund, Lucius always paid everything directly from his vault, and I had to spend the little money that I had with me on girl stuff, but I did want to send you all something, for you have been better to me than I had any right to expect._

_Anyway, people are always going on about how homemade presents have emotional value or something, and if you're anything like me, you like things with your own face on it, so I hope I got it right._

_Yours,_

_Delinda Malfoy_

With the letter came a stack of rolled-up sheets of parchment. They turned out to be beautiful highly realistic portraits, done by Delinda herself.

Fred and George, who had been playing protective brothers for Delinda when some of the older male Slytherins leered at her, had both received a portrait with them both in it. Even when drawn you couldn't tell them apart.

Lee and Ginny also got a portrait of the two of them, but they received only one copy. There was a note though, that said 'As you'll probably end up living together anyway, I figured I needn't bother getting you two of these'.

Harry got a portrait with Delinda herself next to him on it, it had a note stuck to it too, but this note simply said 'Hope I'm not being too presumptuous'. Hermione was pretty sure the boy would need facial surgery to get his grin removed after that.

Hermione's portrait showed her face, in beautiful detail, with her hair pinned up in her favorite style. In the background stood a huge Victorian manor, and on the balcony you could just make out a tiny figure with no shirt on and long ginger hair. Hermione couldn't remember ever mentioning Bill to Delinda, but now decided she must have. Or she would have to kill Ginny, that girl gossiped too much for her own good. Little did Hermione know that Delinda Malfoy was one of the prime members of the B.A.H.-Union. Little did she know that such an organization even existed.

* * *

That afternoon, after the Gryffindor gang had caught up with their friends from the various other houses and done their round of general well-wishing, they held a snowball fight on the grounds.

Hermione won without a doubt, she was especially gifted at hexing the mushy white stuff to follow people around, so she scared all her friends away with her snowy assaults until everyone looked for cover whenever she raised her wand.

They all had great fun, waylaying each other and making corny jokes about how Delinda's fair hair and complexion gave her the unfair advantage of camouflage in the snow and such. The time flew by as they enjoyed themselves.

"Look at the time! It's two o'clock already, come girls, we need to get ready for the ball!", Ginny suddenly exclaimed, which earned her a snowball to the back of the head, courtesy of her own boyfriend.

"Aw Gin, do you really need the entire afternoon for that?", Lee asked pouting. All girls present simply rolled their eyes at him, until Ginny's statement was unexpectedly supported by none other than Cedric Diggory.

"There you are, Hermione, we must be off, or we won't have enough time for the hair preparations.", he exclaimed loudly.

Hermione nodded solemnly and gave her friend a military salute. They had a herculean task looming on the horizon, having to make sure that all attending Hufflepuffs looked absolutely impeccable. The others, except for the Hufflepuff fourth years who were there too, had no idea that Cedric and Hermione were in charge of that though, so they came to a rather different conclusion.

Ginny, Fleur and Delinda took one look at each other, went over to Cedric, hugged him tightly, and then took a step back uncomfortably before they spoke in turns:

"Cedric… You have always been a good friend to my twin brothers, but I can clearly see that you are more comfortable around girls, like how you only tell Hermione any secrets and such."

"I know we 'ave not know each ozzur for very long yet, but I understand 'ow you must feel."

"Same for me, but you know, I know what it's like to have to pretend to like girls, and it's no fun at all, so I kind of sympathize."

"Yes, we all do, and we love you for how you are, we are very open-minded."

"I first considered ze pozzibility when I noticed 'ow well you resist ze veela allure."

"Yeah, but the hairdo is a major hint too, you must spend a lot of time on it to have it like that every day. Merlin's moustache, you probably spend more time on it than I did when still pretending to be a boy!"

"What the bloody hell?", Cedric asked confused, interrupting them. All fell silent, not quite looking him in the eye. They stood like that for some seconds, the three young women an arm's length away, until they noticed an odd noise. After some reconnaissance they found that the noise emitted from Hermione, who nearly choked on her laughter.

"Ceddy… They think you're queer!", she managed to get out between gasping for breath. The effect on Cedric was immediate, he went red and scurried away from the three girls that had ganged up on him. Fleur, Ginny and Delinda took one look at each other, and then just shook their heads as if to say 'he's in denial'.

"I… I'm not… Not, well… Not that there's anything wrong with it, but I'm just not…", Cedric spluttered, his face so red that his audience wondered if the rest of his body had any blood left.

"Why would you leave at two to go get your hair in order then?", George asked, a reasonable question.

"I'm not gay, I'm a prefect. As a prefect I enlisted 'Mione's help to try to make my house look presentable for the ball tonight, and since I'm perfectly straight and therefore don't want ANYTHING to do with make-up and such perversions, I'm supposed to be delegating the male half of the makeshift hair salon."

"Yes, yes. And why, pray tell, are you the guy they look for to lead a hair salon?", Fred enquired, wiggling his eyebrows at his brother.

"If I'm bossing people around, I won't actually have to touch any hair, that's why.", Cedric said with a Snape-worthy sneer, and stomped of with Hermione and what was left of his dignity.

* * *

Some hours passed and the Yule ball arrived. The Durmstrang boys looked dashing, the Beauxbatons ladies enchanting, and the majority of the Hogwarts students passable. All of them however, paled in comparison to the proud house of Helga Hufflepuff.

Whereas those from other houses and schools aimlessly wandered into the great hall, most of them frantically searching for their dates, the Hufflepuffs were orderly and determined. The boys came first, they marched up to the entrance of the great hall and formed a neat line next to it. The girls came next, they descended the huge marble staircase one by one so that each of them had their own little moment in which to be admired. Their respective dates met them at the base of the staircase, offered them a yellow rose, and then walked off with their girl on their arm.

Any non-'puffs that had a date with 'puffs had of course been let in on the plan, and so it came to be that a heavily blushing Neville collected an equally heavily blushing Hannah Abbot who had practiced walking down those stairs for nearly an hour to do it perfectly today. The Weasley twin that Susan had agreed to go with turned out to be George, he told her so as she curtsied in front of him and he handed over her rose.

The other twin, Fred, had surprisingly ended up as Fleur's date. He wasn't her redhead of choice of course, that was Charlie's position, but he was the only unclaimed male of appropriate age with the ability to withstand her allure that she had been able to find, and he had graciously offered his services.

The atypical professionalism of the Hufflepuffs attracted quite the crowd of onlookers. The doors to the great hall were big enough for all the people in there to see the arrival of the badgers. Hermione's friends had acquired front row seats, naturally. Lee, Ginny, Fred and Harry were applauding George whilst the dates of the latter two were looking for something else entirely.

"There zey are!", Fleur suddenly said to Delinda, pointing to the left. The smaller girl stood on tiptoes and squinted in the distance until she noticed the two figures too.

"Oy, Harry, come along for a moment!", she said as she dragged her date in that direction, digging her long fingernails in his arm.

"Malfoy! Erm, I mean Delinda, watch it with the nails!", he said disgruntled when they came to a standstill in front of the couple Fleur had pointed at. His date didn't pay attention to him though, she was too busy smirking evilly.

"Chang, Krum, what a lovely surprise to see the two of you together, merry Christmas to you both!", Dedlinda said, the sugary sarcasm dripping off.

"Oui, but no time for pleasantries, I zink zey will want to see zis next bit.", Fleur interjected, and they shoved the Bulgarian champion and his date back to the entrance, just in time to see Cedric step forward.

The girl he came to meet was of course Hermione. She was the last one to come down the stairs, the Hufflepuffs had unanimously decided that she earned that honor. And really, she was the best woman for the job. All the girls before her had looked pretty, most of them beautiful even, but Hermione wiped the floor with them.

She had always been pretty, especially after her hair grew longer and her teeth shrunk, but now that she or rather her badger friends had put in a little effort, she looked absolutely stunning. If an adjective had to be used, it would be divine. With a wry inner chuckle Hermione realized that this actually helped her keep the men off her back, for her beauty seemed to make her too intimidating for her stalkers to approach her.

That last bit might also be because of her dress though. It's design was still just as great, it played up all the best parts of her figure. It were the colors that made the difference. The gold had become yellow, but of a slightly luminous kind, like a candle's flame, because Hermione had added a minor illumination charm. The previously red ruffles had been turned black, like the edges were charred by . All in all this gave the impression of romantic candlelight, and it was impressive, but also looked a bit alien.

It had taken some rather difficult spellwork to achieve this, but Hermione considered it worth all the effort, she'd had a lot of fun figuring it all out, and she'd been able to help Delinda with it too. As explained before, the once rich miss Malfoy had very little money at the moment, but she had needed a dress for the ball. Therefore Hermione had advised the girl to get a simple dress made out of sturdy, natural fabric, because such material made a nice steady base to put transfigurations and charms on.

Delinda's dress had become very nice, it was in the exact color green of Harry's eyes, and revealed the curves that she surely hadn't had when still pretending to be a boy. Hermione had noticed that Harry was finally losing his scrawny appearance too, and laughed as she recalled the conversation that had followed when she had confronted the pair with this.

* * *

"Harry, Delinda, you've both filled out quite a bit in so short a time. Been having little kitchen dates every evening or something?", she had asked one day during lunch. They had officially broken the tradition of sitting at your own house table that day after Ron's attack, after that everyone simply sat with whom he liked. Inter-house friendships had greatly improved because of this. Only Ronald wasn't ever seen at the house tables anymore, he presumably ate in the kitchens. In fact, he was hardly ever seen anymore, he had turned into a nameless nobody, and no one cared.

"No, I was always kept on a strict diet so I wouldn't become too curvaceous, I'm simply gaining a normal figure now that I'm allowed to eat as much as I want.", had been Delinda's answer, and Harry had chuckled in agreement.

"Yeah, and now that we're not sitting with Ron anymore, I'm actually capable of holding down my food. Merlin's bloody underpants, that guy has no table manners whatsoever."

At this, Delinda had whacked her not-yet-boyfriend in the head.

"Merlin doesn't get bloody underpants, darling, only girls do and only once a month. I swear, that's the absolutely worst part of having my gender."

* * *

Hermione fondly remembered Harry's face at that last comment that Delinda had made. Who would have known that the girl had such a funny sense of humor? Hermione surely hadn't expected it, and neither had Harry. He had hit it off immediately with her though, Hermione was pretty sure that they'd announce that they were dating soon. They looked very cute together, and they complemented each other well.

Anyway, the dress looked great, and all the adjustments held up very well. The charms on Hermione's dress were very durable too, but she had set them to fade at midnight, because the flimsy machine-made silk of her dress wouldn't be able to support so much magic for longer than that, unlike the dress that Delinda wore, that was made from heavy cotton, no matter how elegant it looked now.

Krum seemed to appreciate her dress too, he was positively salivating over her, and clearly jealous. He got no chance to say anything though, because just then everyone was called inside, as dinner was about to start.

Hermione was quite happy with the seating arrangements. The champions, their dates and the judges had their own table of course, and she sat there wedged between Cedric and Fleur. Fred sat next to Fleur, next to him surprisingly his brother Percy, who had come to fill in for Crouch. Hermione quickly congratulated him, remembering Penelopy's card. Percy looked enormously smug after that, and had a great time misleading Fred when he tried to find out what his older brother was hiding.

The other judges sat somewhere next to Percy, but Hermione didn't really remember where because she already had so much fun with her friends.

Poor Cedric however, had the misfortune of getting Krum and Cho as table neighbors, with Cho conquering the seat directly next to him. Naturally the girl focused all her attention on Cedric rather than her own date, and it took the poor boy quite a lot of effort to ignore her.

Cho's date didn't pay attention to her either, Krum's eyes were on Hermione during the entire meal. When the girl didn't react to this at all, Krum got desperate, and in the end decided to mention what he had seen during the Hogsmeade trip, Hermione's date with Bill. Not known for subtlety, the Bulgarian roughly shoved Cedric in the shoulder to get him to listen.

"I tell you, Diggory, she vas vith another man this veekend. She cheats on you vith some tall ginger, probably another Veasley!" Krum glared in the direction of Fred and Percy at the last bit.

What he didn't expect, was that Hermione and Cedric simply looked at each other and burst out laughing at the accusation. They spoke no more of the matter, and the meal soon ended.

The dancing afterwards was fun. Hermione had a great time with Cedric, just like Fred had with Fleur and George had with Susan. Harry and Delinda had an even greater time, you could see it in their eyes, which saw only the other. Blaise and Daphne had long since disappeared behind an ice sculpture together, not realizing that the frosty reindeer was translucent, and that therefore everyone saw what they were up to anyway. Lee and Ginny danced like there was no tomorrow under the watchful eye of her various brothers.

The rest of the guests, bar the Hufflepuffs, were a little disgruntled though. The hours of drilling dance moves into the poor students' skulls had paid off, as the badgers all looked highly sophisticated. They felt enormously smug about this, the most insignificant house upstaged both the rest of the school and the foreign delegations. Something changed in the wizarding world's dynamics that night, from second-rate civilians, the noble badgers suddenly turned into worthy opponents, and they knew whom they had to thank for it.

At five minutes until eleven, Neville led Hannah outside into the garden, probably to snog each other senseless, and Hermione pretended to follow them in order to meet Bill at the front doors like he had asked her.

When she arrived, he was already there, huddled in the shadows.

"Hi.", she mumbled shyly, not quite knowing what to say. She had no chance to say anything either, as Charlie suddenly dashed past them and shoved her into Bill.

"Oerf!", Bill exclaimed, grabbing onto her to steady her, but keeping a hold on her even when she regained her footing. "I've got your Christmas present.", he whispered softly, and took something from his pocket.

"It's beautiful!", Hermione said in awe. It was a simple silver ring, with three small sapphires imbedded in it. Sapphires, she realized with a smirk, in the exact color of Bill's eyes. She threw the man an amused, calculated glance, and he squirmed, suddenly very nervous.

Hermione smiled encouragingly when she realized what he might be going to say, what she very much wanted him to say. Sure enough, Bill took a step back and wrung his hands, but then spoke with clear honesty and emotion in his voice:

"Erm, Hermione… If you take this ring, would you then perhaps consider… Consider accepting it as real? Oh, honestly, I can't take it anymore! I love you 'Mione, I fell for you, fell for you hard, ever since that day we fought those Death Eaters together, and I know you're only fifteen, and I know that must make me some pervy old guy, but I just know you're the one I want to spend my life with, and I can't stand it to see those others try to steal you away!"

It took a while before Hermione's brain processed what Bill had said, but once that was done she flung her arms around him and embraced him tightly.

"Yes!", she whispered passionately in his ear. She felt his tensed back relax under her touch, and leaned her head on his left shoulder. They stood like that for a moment, before he took her hand to slide the ring on her finger, his face approaching hers at the same time, until their lips touched.

As first kisses go, this one was wonderful. It wasn't perfect, nothing ever was, but that just made it all that much sweeter. The kiss lasted pretty long, until they couldn't keep their lips on each other's anymore due to the huge smiles they couldn't repress. They embraced again whilst fighting for control over their facial muscles, when Bill spoke.

"So, from single to betrothed in five minutes eh?", he remarked casually, and Hermione snorted.

"Oh just shut your mouth and get over here Weasley!", she growled, pulled his head down by his ginger ponytail, and kissed him once more. Bill didn't complain.

They kept exploring each other's mouth, tongue wrestling, exchanging saliva, snogging or however you want to call it for the better part of that hour. One time, when they came up for air, Hermione felt the need to discuss something with her betrothed, or boyfriend, or whatever he was now. She knew she'd need to start talking immediately, or she would lose her resolve.

"Okay William, let's get some ground rules down before this escalates.", she began in her best stern McGonagall voice. Bill backed away slightly, whimpering softly as she glared at him. He wondered just what she was going to say.

"You're keeping that thing in your pants to yourself until I'm at least of age."

"Yeeeeesss…", he agreed apprehensively. That was a reasonable request. But what would follow?

"And that's about it.", his now girlfriend concluded. Bill sighed in relief.

"Due to the tone I was expecting something with shackles and blood and such.", he mumbled into his love's ear as he took her in his arms again. "But this I actually agree with. I'm a pervy old guy already, I won't make it worse by seducing innocent school girls."

"Leave out that plural 'girls' there and then you'll at least be MY pervy old guy.", she retorted and kissed him once more on the cheek.

Just then a clock chimed somewhere in the distance, and they suddenly realized that it was a quarter until midnight already, and as the ball would end at 12 o'clock, they decided to rejoin their friends.

Charlie had apparently snatched Fleur out of his brother's arms the second he entered the castle, they were now dancing together happily. The slightly disgruntled Fred had left on a mission to spike the punch after that, soon joined by his twin who decided that Susan was better off with Cedric, who had been left behind when Hermione went to Bill. Because of the twins' legendary liquor smuggling abilities, all the people at the ball had now consumed so much alcohol that no one noticed or cared that there were two Weasleys too many.

Traditionally there was always one last slowdance just before midnight, and it was starting now, just when Bill and Hermione found their friends. The various couples they were acquainted with danced it with happiness and gooey expressions, Bill and Hermione danced it with passion.

Hermione remembered that her dress would regain its normal colors soon, right when it happened. Just as Bill spun her around, the glowing yellow became glistening gold, and the pitch-black faded into a bright scarlet. Bill's eyes widened as he saw the princess of Hufflepuff turn into the queen of Gryffindor, looking even more beautiful with his ring on her finger, and as he looked into her eyes, he knew he had given it to the right girl.

Some people were simply meant to be together.


	16. 16 - The Morning After

(A/N)

Ugh, school work is killing me! Just why did I decide to take extra classes and a load of extracurricular activities again? Well, at least my CV will look impressive once I get around to working. I just hope it doesn't kill me before I get to that.

In the mean time, I hope you like the new chapter now that I finally got it posted. Now that Hermione and Bill are finally together I'm going to dedicate some chapters to the plot of this story.

Thanks to my lovely reviewers, Angel897, Flyingberry, Griffindork93, Hellcat-sakura, Terrence Rogue, Shadow Girl, Guest and Sampdoria.

I think it's hilarious when people go around spiking the punch too. I myself am a teetotaler out of principle, I've seen alcohol destroy too much to ever enjoy it, but I just love the concept.

Anyway, enjoy the chapter, and I don't own Harry Potter!

* * *

**Chapter 16 – The morning after**

The day after the Yule ball found the majority of Hogwarts' population looking for stray possessions.

When Hermione first heard that in order to attend the Yule ball, you had to stay at Hogwarts during the entire Christmas break, she had been quite indignant. Holidays were invented to give people some rest from the usual day-to-day life, and when stuck in a common room with nearly one hundred housemates, give or take a few, a person simply didn't get rest. Christmases at Hogwarts were survivable as long as not too many people were there, but now with everyone staying for the ball, Hermione was sure they'd all go crazy from cabin fever before the first week had passed.

Being as usual pretty much the only one to notice the obvious solution, Hermione concluded that it was no more than logical to have a second departure date, to give the students a chance to leave for their families after the Yule ball.

She had verified this opinion with a few friends, and gotten some heated affirmations. Apparently a lot of people even considered giving up the ball so they wouldn't have to miss the family celebrations, and they really hoped something could be arranged to enable them to attend the ball. Hermione figured it couldn't be that much trouble to have the Hogwarts' Express make an extra trip, or even to simply allow parents to pick up their children in Hogsmeade. She had brought the issue up with McGonagall, who had wholeheartedly agreed, not quite looking forward to having to babysit all those students during what was supposed to be a holiday. The headmaster however, had been preoccupied when McGonagall wanted to discuss it, he had dismissed her.

McGonagall had shared this news with Hermione, and both the woman and the girl had ranted for quite some time about the various attributes of marine animals that Dumbledore supposedly possessed, we can only hope for his sake that there was no truth in their colorful words. Once she had vented her anger though, Hermione had written a petition and gotten in signed by an overwhelming 93 percent of the student body, and most of the teachers, to top it off. She sent this petition to the board of governors, who agreed that it was in everybody's best interest to have the Hogwarts' Express make another trip. Quite a few of these people were rather flabbergasted at the idea of a petition, it was apparently too democratic a concept for the wizarding world. That didn't mean it repulsed them however, everyone with a little political insight was very interested.

You see, the only commonly read newspaper in the wizarding world was the Daily Prophet. As the ministry completely controlled that one, except for when Hermione blackmailed their reporters, the people unhappy with the government had no way to express their opinions to a broad public.

Sending around a petition like Hermione had done not only gained awareness, but support too, and as no one likes the idea of an angry mob, the authorities were quite likely to give in when enough people signed the thing. Yes, this was the beginning of many, many discussions indeed.

But that's beside the point, the point is that Hermione and her friends could go home for Christmas, and that they would do so today.

* * *

Hermione's group of friends, including those from other houses and schools, and Bill and Charlie, had held a slumber party in the Gryffindor common room. The older students amongst them had conjured sleeping bags for everyone, making the charms strong enough to make the conjurations last until late in the morning so that they could sleep in.

Bill had expanded a couch and shared it with Hermione, they slept like logs snuggled into each other, until 9 a.m. when Bill had to leave, because he had promised his mother to arrive home then to help her prepare a huge Christmas dinner for all their extended family, neighbors, friends and other acquaintances. Considering the time at which they had gone to sleep, this was pretty horrible, but it did give them the opportunity to snog each other goodbye in privacy before Bill left, after they'd both brushed their teeth of course.

Hermione still couldn't believe her luck, that she'd actually managed to capture Bill's heart. She had a little less trouble believing that he'd just snogged her senseless, as she was still gasping for air when he left.

"Hello 'Mione, when the hell did that happen?", a feminine voice suddenly spoke up behind the couch, after the portrait hole shut behind Bill's lovely backside.

Hermione internally groaned. If there was anyone she didn't want to discuss her new relationship with, it was Ginny Weasley. Her probably-someday-sister-in-law had been making a lot of weird remarks lately, rather suggestive remarks that always ended with Hermione doing unmentionable things with the girl's oldest brother. Not that Hermione didn't like the idea of most of these things, but she feared she wouldn't be able to look her lover in the eye anymore after a particular monologue about the alternative uses of kitchen implements.

Her groan became louder when another redhead appeared next to the smirking third year.

"Hah, guess you owe me five galleons now, Gin!", Charlie guffawed.

"No way!", Ginny exclaimed, as she snatched up Hermione's hand, the owner of which looked very confused.

"We had a bet. And I won it!", Charlie explained to the bewildered girl.

"Nope, I won it!", Ginny interjected smugly, showing off the beautiful promise ring on Hermione's finger.

"Nah, that's a promise ring.", Charlie said, rejecting his sister's words.

"A ring is a ring. We never mentioned a particular kind.", Ginny retorted though, and Charlie had to give in.

"I suppose.", he agreed. "But surely you know I meant a wedding ring, or at least an engagement ring?" He was trying to save a sinking ship now, and they both knew it.

"Whatever you meant, you said 'a ring', so this suffices." Ginny huffed and added : "By the way, don't forget that you are financially independent, but that five galleons is a year's worth of pocket money for me. Doesn't that make you feel bad for trying to extort money from your baby sister?" Indeed, Charlie did feel slightly ashamed now. He had to ask one last thing though.

"Just, Hermione, did you kiss Bill before or only after he gave you that ring?"

Hermione had to think about it. "Erm, I dunno. We pretty much started our first kiss whilst he put it on my finger, but I guess it was on before our lips touched. Why does it matter?"

Ginny looked very triumphant as Charlie fished around in his pockets for five galleons.

"What was this bet about anyway?", Hermione asked with narrowed eyes.

"Oh, nothing of importance.", Ginny answered, trying to sound nonchalant as Charlie took a few steps back. After the fight with the death eaters at the world cup he really didn't want to be near an angry Hermione.

"If it's not important, you might as well tell me.", Hermione said, a threatening undertone in her voice now.

"No really, there were far worse bets about the two of you!", Ginny said, cowering away. This confused Hermione.

"What? How many people are even aware that I know Bill?"

"Oh, quite a few.", the younger girl mumbled, fingering the B.A.H.-Union badge that was pinned to her dressing gown.

"What is that?", Hermione demanded, eying the badge suspiciously.

"A badge.", Ginny muttered evasively, Charlie had long since taken cover behind another couch on the far end of the room.

"I noticed. What does B.A.H.-Union stand for?"

"Bill an Hermione Union.", Ginny squeaked, hardly audible.

"You have an entire union dedicated to getting me together with your brother?", Hermione asked incredulously. She supposed it was just Ginny and some of those gossip-friends of hers, just some girls that liked playing matchmaker and chose a dramatic name for their mission. But wait a minute, she had seen a lot of people walking around with such badges lately, even teachers, so what if…?

"Just how many members does this union have?", Hermione asked in a lifeless voice, her face going pale.

"About two hundred, give or take a few.", Ginny answered, covering her face with her arms in protection. That turned out to be unnecessary though, for Hermione simply sat on the couch apathetically, staring blankly in front of her.

"Who?", she asked in a hollow voice. Since when did Ginny even know that many people?

"Erm, a lot of students, most of the staff here, all my brothers except Bill himself and you-know-which-one, madam Rosmerta and some other people from Hogsmeade…"

Hermione didn't react, so Ginny explained further.

"It all started with me and Charlie, when we noticed that you and Bill fancy each other. Fleur wanted to help, because she owes you her life and all. We asked some other female friends then. Most of the Beauxbatons delegation was in just to get you off the market so that all the boys would stop drooling over you and notice them." Ginny had started pacing, Hermione still sat and stared.

"When your Hufflepuff yearmates heard of it they all joined in too, except for that prat Zacharias Smith. After that we got more boys involved, Cedric of course, but Harry, Lee and the twins too. Everyone from the study groups followed."

Ginny glanced over to Hermione once more, but the girl was still dazed. Charlie had disappeared from the room altogether.

"In the meantime McGonagall had already teamed up with madam Pomphrey. They decided to collaborate with us, and recruited more staff members and other adults."

Even McGonagall had been in? This startled Hermione so badly that she actually reacted.

"Let's just get some breakfast.", the curly-haired girl quickly interceded. She'd have one hell of a conversation with Bill that evening when she would see him again at the Burrow. Ginny's face fell.

"I'm sorry, but I still have to pack all my stuff, and I really should do that first.", she apologized.

"No problem, I'll walk you down.", another voice suddenly spoke from a few meters away. Apparently Harry had woken up, and he had been listening to them. "Delinda looks like she'll sleep for at least three more hours, and I am very hungry." He dislodged himself from the girl in question, which lay sprawled all over him in her sleeping bag. Both Hermione and Ginny smiled at the sight.

* * *

"This place looks so huge when it's empty.", Hermione quietly remarked when they entered the great hall. She and Harry were the only ones down for breakfast already.

"Yes.", Harry agreed. "Amazing that they managed to put the house tables back already and all.", he remarked. Indeed, only the usual Christmas decorations remained, the extra stuff that had been put up for the ball had disappeared.

"It looked really magnificent yesterday. I heard that you were more impressed with something outside in the garden though.", the boy smirked as he plunked down at the Gryffindor table.

Hermione sat down next to Harry and whacked the back of his head.

"Oi, what was that for!", he exclaimed.

"For conspiring behind my back. A secret matchmaking-club, really? Delinda's Slytherinism must be rubbing off on you.", Hermione huffed.

"Well, the hat nearly did place me in that house.", Harry retorted.

"Ah, but you know my theory that says that Slytherins are actually Gryffindors."

Harry just smiled as she said that. "As much fun as conspiring behind your back is, conspiring with you is far better."

Hermione smiled back. "Yes, we really should spend more time on our plans, especially if your scar is still hurting. Is it?"

"Occasionally. Not as bad as this summer though, and no more weird visions."

"That's good to hear. I did have some disconcerting insights however, which we really should discuss, but preferably somewhere more private."

Harry nodded, understanding completely. "You are coming to Padfoot's place too, aren't you?"

"Yes, the second week of the holidays. I'll go to the huge party at the Burrow tonight of course, and I'll spend the rest of this week with my parents, but after that I'll be with you guys."

"Great. That will make things a lot easier, and we can ask Sirius and Remus for their opinion too. They experienced the first war, they probably have something useful to say about the later stages of the plan. I know how important it is to keep all the stuff secret, but if we can trust anyone enough to confide in, I think it's those two. They'll also come in handy if we ever manage to execute the plans, even I am not stubborn enough to refuse to see that we'll need adult help with that.

"Indeed, we have a lot to work on, and that secure location that Sirius has been fixing up is perfect for it." Hermione looked her friend in the eye before she continued. "Also, I missed just hanging out with you. As much as I love all my friends, most of them simply don't understand me the way you do."

It was true. She had a lot of friends, but she had to keep certain secrets from most of them, particularly about Voldemort-related matters. The only one whom she told more than Harry was Cedric. Only Cedric knew her deepest darkest secrets, the ones she couldn't burden even Harry with. That didn't make Harry a lesser friend though, he simply was a different kind of friend. Whereas she talked with Cedric, she fought with Harry, he was her battle-hardened comrade in arms. In terms of hobbies and interests, they had little in common, but they could work together like no others.

"Same for me.", the boy answered her with a smile, knowing exactly what she meant with her words.


	17. 17 - Ronald's Return

(A/N)

Yay, finally got an update done again! Yes, it was late, and indeed, updates will remain few and far between for some more time, but the story is a bit of a lesser priority at the moment.

Still, I won't forget you, especially my reviewers. Angel897, Feminist4ever, Griffindork93, Rosemary Lily Marie, Nikyta, MissLunaLovegood1999, Urmamaroxs, MoonShadowAMR and .96780, thanks for the support and advice.

Indeed, I have to agree that Hermione has become one hell of a Mary Sue. I hate those as much as anyone with some appreciation for literature, but it just sneaks into my writing so easily. I'll try to keep her more realistic, thanks for the warning.

It was also a good idea to change the label to 'Romance', I didn't expect this to become such a sloppy love story when I started writing it, and after that it never came into my mind to change it. Romance really is more appropriate.

By the way, I'm afraid that B.A.H.-Union badges are not for sale, sorry to disappoint everyone.

As for the usual disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

Enjoy the chapter now that it's finally here!

* * *

**Chapter 17 – Ronald's Return**

When it came down to expanding her family, there were three absolute certainties in Molly Weasley's life. Number one: she wanted many children, which she'd accomplished already. Number two: she wanted even more grandchildren, which she was still hoping for, and which might be soon now that Percy had proposed to Penelope and Charlie had declared that French girl his girlfriend. The tricky one was number three: she wanted Hermione Granger as a daughter in law.

She recalled the moment when she decided the last thing very well, as it was only the summer before, when she, her family and their two guests had miraculously been able to visit the quidditch world cup. Minister Fudge had considered it necessary to have Harry Potter present at the game no matter what. This was of course because the presence of a national hero would attract a lot of foreign guests, which would earn him money. Enough money to sacrifice ten seats in the top box to get it, apparently. Fudge had only wanted to give three tickets of course, one for Ron, one for Harry and one for Arthur, but he clearly hadn't counted on Arthur Weasley's well-hidden sneakyness. The man, who had nearly been a Slytherin in his school days, had convinced the minister that he wouldn't go without the rest of his family, which cost him some time, but earned him ten tickets in the end.

This is where Hermione came in. Molly had decided to remain home during the world cup, to watch the house and because she didn't care for quidditch that much. This meant that they could take one extra person along, so the family decided to vote who this would be. It had been a major surprise for Arthur and Molly when their five youngest children unanimously voted for Hermione, who was as far as they knew only close with Ron. When the couple's redheaded offspring presented the reasoning behind their choice though, they had to concede, and a lot of things started making sense to Molly.

She had, throughout the years, watched her children closely. The eldest two had developed nicely, the responsibility over so many siblings had made them mature and self-sufficient. A little too self-sufficient maybe, for they had both run off abroad after graduation. The younger ones were more difficult.

Percy, to begin with, was intelligent and ambitious, but unfortunately this was a package deal with a pompous attitude and antisocial behavior. Fred and George were completely hopeless, with their horrible marks, defiant nature and the way they bullied anyone clad in green. Ron was, well, Ron. Dense, insensible and lazy to a fault, with zero ambition and few redeeming qualities. Even Ginny, Molly's prized daughter, had caused the woman to worry, for the girl was both very timid and very emotional, and therefore found it hard to make friends, which wasn't really helped by the Weasley's secluded lifestyle either.

Imagine Molly's surprise when her boys returned after Ron's first year, and Percy was suddenly a lot more outgoing and even had a girlfriend, the very Penelope who was now engaged to him. The twins had changed too, they suddenly appeared to know what they were doing, their marks had risen enormously, and their pranks seemed more intent on teaching people a lesson rather than merely harming and humiliating them. Ron had even managed to get passing grades, against all expectations. Molly had taken this all for granted at the time, but now realized that somehow it all boiled down to that curly haired friend of her youngest son.

It had been Hermione who involved Percy in the study groups, in which he had gained both his newfound confidence and his girlfriend. She had also been the one who made Fred and George realize that if they worked hard in their classes, they would be able to construct more complicated pranks. And of course, if Ron hadn't been able to steal Hermione's essays to copy, he would have flunked out in his first year.

Even Ginny, who had been a basket case after the whole possession-by-Tom-Riddle thing had benefited of it all by default, because Percy could now help her get in contact with people her age, which was exactly what she needed, and Fred and George managed to realize that they should support their sister rather than tease her about the ordeal. Molly shuddered to think what would have happened if the twins had still been the discriminating bullies they had been up to their third year.

This good picture of the girl was only confirmed in Molly's eyes when Hermione actually arrived at the Burrow. She was rather self-conscious and a bit overly opinionated, but so very charming too. She had a good sense of morality and decent manners, and everyone seemed to get along with her, even that Diggory boy that lived somewhere near and hardly ever stopped by the Burrow made a point of paying her a visit. That is what Molly liked most about her, that the girl and the entire family mutually liked each other so much, that she wouldn't come between the family, but hold them together.

That is also the main reason why Molly wanted Hermione as a daughter-in-law. She had thought it would happen with Ron someday, they were close friends and classmates after all. The woman had been devastated after the whole Incident between the two, it had killed all her hopes. Therefore it was no wonder that she now almost cackled with glee as she saw her eldest son talking to the girl over dinner. Her daughter had informed her that the two were seeing each other, only officially since the day before, but still in a very serious manner. Reluctant as she was to slight her own child, Molly really thought that Bill was more suited for the girl than Ron could ever be for any girl at all.

All in all, we should be glad that Molly didn't notice the promise ring that Hermione wore until after that day, for if she had discovered it during the party, multiple guests would have had to take their leave due to shattered eardrums, which would've dampened the festive mood considerably.

As she gave Hermione some extra dessert, Molly glanced at her youngest son, who was seated at the other end of the table, as far away as possible from the girl. Molly had deliberately put him there, between Arthur and herself, for she didn't want him to cause trouble, but didn't want to completely sequester him from events like this Christmas party either, as that would just make him bitter.

Luckily the party had gone well, even though Molly couldn't remember hosting so many people since her own wedding day. She seriously doubted she'd have been able to cook all the food, had Bill not helped her all afternoon. She also wondered if there would have been place for all the guests if Bill hadn't put warming wards around the garden to keep the frosty cold out, so that they could sit there rather than in the shabby house.

There were of course as many family members as were willing to come, including old Muriel who happily insulted anyone who ventured too close to her. The wizarding families who lived near had come too, including the Diggory's and the Lovegoods. Percy and Charlie had both brought their girlfriends, Percy had even formally presented Penelope as his fiancé. With Percy and Arthur had also come some of their friendlier colleagues from the ministry. That just left the kids' friends. Lee happily sat between Ginny and the twins, Harry sat somewhere opposite them bemoaning the fact that Delinda was staying with her mother the entire holidays, helping the woman get through her divorce, and Hermione of coarse sat next to Bill, totally enraptured. Hermione's parents had come too, at Arthur's insistence, and the mother seemed utterly delighted to find out that her daughter was dating the young man.

Molly sighed as she watched her husband stand up when Bill excused himself for a moment. She had managed to keep the man from badgering the poor muggles about their numerous oddities during the meal, but nothing could stop him now that the food was finished. With Bill's chair newly occupied, the poor guy was forced to sit next to Ron when he returned.

Molly smiled approvingly at how her son handled the situation. Bill absolutely hated his little brother for what he had done to Hermione of course, but for the sake of family he tried to be civil about it.

"Ron, how have you been?", Bill asked very politely as he sat down. Ron didn't look up though.

"Why don't you just go back to your little whore as it is oh so obvious that you don't WANT to talk to me?", was the answer Bill received. It stunned him into silence for a moment.

"That was uncalled for.", he finally retorted. All the other guests had frozen, they turned their heads to watch the confrontation unfold. Ron snorted.

"It's exactly how it is. If the stuck-up bint doesn't want me, she must be after guys for the money, which classifies her as a whore." Multiple people had to be forcibly restrained now, especially the red-headed ones. All the restrainers sighed in relief when they saw that Hermione at least remained in her seat, for no one really wanted to face her infamous temper. They all held their breath as Hermione glanced over at Ron.

She didn't do so in an angry manner however, she simply looked down upon him as if he were a lesser being. Her expression spoke mainly of pity, as she addressed her mother, one of the people being restrained, who was seated next to her.

"Well, well, who would have thought I'd see the day that Ronald Billius Weasley uses logical reasoning. A shame really that his argumentation is so faulty, but then again, it's HIM, we mustn't forget that." Her face was a carefully frozen mask, the emotions displayed on it false, mere projections to hide her inner turmoil. She couldn't care less about Ronald's opinion of her, that didn't cause her pain, but something in his behavior never failed to make her question her faith in humanity.

Not wanting to spoil a perfectly nice party however, Hermione decided not to mention her discomfort. Luckily there was her handsome tall boyfriend to distract her.

Hermione's mother seemed a little miffed with her daughter's blasé attitude, but decided to go along with ignoring Ron's behavior. Attention seemed after all what the boy liked most, whether it was of the good or the bad kind, so they wouldn't give him any at all.

Bill seemed to finally realize that too, and walked over to his girlfriend. As much as he liked defending his fair maiden, he understood that nothing short of a sledgehammer would get through Ron's skull. Rather than waste any effort on his worthless little brother, the young man decided to focus his entire being on his wonderful girlfriend.

He didn't part with her again for the rest of the evening, he spent his time getting to know her and her parents better, and dancing his love of course. He had never particularly cared for dancing, but with Hermione it was different. Probably because he enjoyed holding her close so much, or because his hand would sneak just a little below her waist now and then. She even kissed him whenever she thought no one was looking, but at those moments Bill could always see Hermione's mother standing somewhere near, grinning encouragingly at him behind her daughter's back. As if his own mother's meddling wasn't bad enough already…

* * *

A snake called Nagini happily slithered away once the party was done, she had many interesting things to tell her master.

The Malfoys had a daughter? And they were getting divorced? Nagini didn't know that, and neither did her master. The dark-haired boy with the scar on his forehead had said it though. There was also this funny thing about the girl with the unpronounceable name supposedly being the Hogwarts' Triwizard Champion. Voldemort had said that the dark-haired boy would be the champion.

Yes, the snake would tell her master many interesting things indeed.

* * *

Let's not forget, however, that Voldemort and his cronies were not the only enemies around. In London, in the backroom of the seediest establishment in the seediest part of Knockturn Alley, two men sat opposite each other, nursing a brandy and a firewiskey respectively.

"Ugh, this stuff would strip the polish of my broom, it would!", Ludo Bagman complained to his companion.

"Quit moaning and remind me again, just what is it that those brats have to do during the second task of the tournament?", Barty Crouch Senior spit back at the ex-quidditch player.

"Fetch what they love most from the bottom of that lake within an hour. Plenty of opportunities for 'unfortunate accidents', if you catch my drift."

"Yes, yes, we must get rid of the girl, she's too bloody conniving. She's upsetting the social hierarchy, before we know it we'll have a revolution on our hands."

"How'd ya reckon we get it done, though?"

"Simple. Make sure only the little chit can get to the bottom, and off her there."

"Nah, won't work 'cause of the hostages." That startled Crouch.

"Hostages?"

"Yes, the things the brats love most. Siblings, friends, whatever.", Bagman answered off-handedly.

"Dumbledore's idea?", Crouch snorted derisively.

"Right in one."

"The old coot." The men's opinion on the headmaster was apparently not all that high.

"Who's the girl's hostage gonna be d'ya reckon? If we 'ave them others save theirs first, we can just off the two of them."

"No idea. Moody says she's very close to that son of Diggory's, from the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. Only son too, and they're a respectable family, so we can't lose the boy." Alastor Moody had been surprisingly helpful to the two conspirers. The old auror had easily caught the men, sometime after the first task of the tournament, but after that he'd helped them out and offered his advice. Little did Crouch and Bagman know that Moody was in reality the impostor Barty Crouch Junior. Junior actually considered it an ironic idea that his father was now helping him with the very thing the man had once thrown his son into Azkaban for.

"Damn. It would h'been nice to blame someone's dead on her, off 'em both and say t'is due to some mistake of hers. Would keep 'er from bein' a martyr or some such nonsense."

"That's true. But we could always arrange for her to have another person as hostage. Anyone come to mind?" Somewhere between his third and fourth brandy, Crouch had loosened his pinstriped robes a little. He now sat back comfortably in the unsteady wooden chair.

"Potter? Nah, it'd work against us with the whole Boy-Who-Lived crap. Isn't she seein' one o' them Weasley's though?"

"Yes, now that you mention it. The eldest I believe, works for Gringott's, as a curse breaker. Does some warding too occasionally, he helped out warding the dragon exhibit for the first task."

"Arrr, perfect. Insignificant family with more 'n enough sons? Check. Just need to convince the lot now tae go along with it."

"Wards!", Crouch suddenly yelled, jumping out of his seat quite uncharacteristically. "That's it!"

"What are you on about?", Bagman asked confused.

"Moody mentioned this guy, an ex-con. Used to be Gringott's foremost expert in wards, curses, anything of the like. He got bitten by a werewolf, and they let him keep working, just like that. Someone caught on though, so he got jailtime for not getting himself registered. Azkaban drove him to the dark side, he lives like scum now, right here in Knockturn Alley, but he still has his talents, according to Moody."

"Great, but what'd we need him for?"

"He can set up wards that'll let the other people pass, but lock the little mudblood in. He has the knowledge to do so, but he isn't linked to a company, and won't be missed if he 'disappears' afterwards! There will be no loose ends." If coldblooded mania were like blue custard pudding, Crouch would be drenched in it like a blubbery Smurf without the white hat.

Bagman wouldn't be any less bad, with the way his eyes gleamed as he raised his glass.

"Here's to a productive evening!"


	18. 18 - A Very Merry Christmas

(A/N)

Wow, finally another update after MONTHS. I can't make any promises for the future, but I hope to be at least a little quicker with the next one. Really though, I'll be abroad for a few weeks soon, and after that school will start again with vengeance – and I truly can't afford to mess up my graduation year. Well, not that I messed up the other years, but I want to end with decent marks so that it'll be easier to get into the university of my choice.

Anyway, enough about my boring, boring life, let's get back to the story. First a little summary for those (whom I can't blame) who forgot most of it after such a long time.

So, here the Spectacularly Sucking Summary:

Hermione get's into the Triwizard Tournament, and Crouch fails to enter Harry. Crouch and Bagman now want to kill her, while they try to keep Voldemort in the dark about how they failed. Hermione saves Fleur Delacour during the first task, but ends up with some veela attributes as a result of it. Somewhere in between she falls in love with Bill Weasley, and he with her, and they start dating after the Yule ball. Draco Malfoy turns out to be a girl, and his family loses most of its money and respect as a result of it. Ron tries to rape Hermione but is caught and gets in deep trouble as a result. Oh, and important for this chapter: Hermione once saved a Hufflepuff girl from rape, which created an acquaintance which later proved to be very useful indeed.

Hope you'll all be able to understand it now. And hope you'll enjoy this long overdue update! And no, I still don't own Harry Potter or anything like it.

And of course, al lot of thanks for all the people who have been so kind to review despite my lack of updates! .96780, angel897, Rosemary Lily Marie, griffindork93, LeonaMasha, Sampdoria, EmilyWoods, urmamaroxs, IGOTEAMEDWARD, nikyta, guest, Cat130, Venetiangrl92, chst, Jossalyn, Kilataia and Almedias, I love you all.

Especially those wonderfully long reviews from Almedias were very constructive, it's nice when someone really puts effort in analyzing your story. A shame you don't agree with all my choices, but eh, that's what fanfiction is for, isn't it? To let everyone make their own choices. I won't for one second claim that my story is book-worthy or realistic at all, I just write something that is fun for me to write and hopefully fun for you to read, which it apparently is considering the many positive reviews. I try to make the best of the plot, I'll use all the advice you people give me the best I can, and if you don't like something you can always pretend it happened otherwise – that's what I always do.

PS: I finally retrieved an old USB stick which contained a fanfic about 'The Ranger's Apprentice' series which I wrote some time ago, way before I started this story. It isn't much, only a few chapters and short ones at that, but I'll post the first chapter, the rest if people like it, and perhaps even continue writing it if it gets some followers. I prefer this story though, so this one will always get precedence.

* * *

**Chapter 18 – A Very Merry Christmas**

"Think we should dedicate a chapter to dementors? I mean, sure I mention how to beat them, but without further instructions people wouldn't bother learning how to do it themselves, and I really want this thing to become useful."

"That's a wonderful idea Harry! We could also put all those monsters you faced in your second year together in one chapter. Basilisks and acromentulae aren't really common, so a chapter apiece would be a bit too much, but short summaries on how to defend yourself against them would be a great addition."

When Hermione and Harry decided to write a book they were still first years. Meaning Hermione was still rather arrogant, annoying and over-achieving. Well, she still was a bit over-achieving, but she now realized that cramming as many facts as possible into a book was not the way to make it a pleasant read. She had Harry's subtle comments to thank for that, and she really was grateful, because she shuddered to think what the book would have looked like if she had written it alone. Now however she had learned, albeit with some reluctance, might I add, to limit herself to the truly necessary information.

The book, by the way, told the true story about Harry's misadventures. Hermione had gotten the idea when she first met Harry, when she rattled off all sorts of supposed facts from books about him, and little of it turned out to be true. If the existing books didn't get it right, why not write one yourself? When Harry faced Voldemort later that year, she remembered her idea, and shared it with Harry who was remarkably enthusiastic about something that was in theory writing a really, really long essay, something that he detested.

"You know, I missed just hanging out like this.", Harry suddenly said. He looked thoughtful as he sat cross-legged next to the fireplace in one of the various parlors of Grimmauld Place nr. 12.

Hermione lowered her quill for a moment. "Yes, it's really been a while since it was just me and you. I guess that with the tournament and all, everyone's trying to monopolize my attention."

"I missed it though."

At that Hermione sprung up from her armchair and engulfed Harry in a hug.

"Oh Harry, you don't feel like I've been neglecting you, do you?"

"No, 'Mione.", he answered, but his face said otherwise. "It's just, between your dates with Bill-" He broke off mid-sentence when he noticed Hermione's expression. "Yes you are dating Bill. As I said, between your dates with Bill, your midnight kitchen-meetings with Diggory, your study club, preparing lessons for that club, your regular homework, preparing for the tournament and doing Merlin knows what with Ginny, Fleur and your other girlfriends, we hardly get to talk to each other anymore. And I've always seen you as a sister."

Hermione was close to tears now. "Oh Harry, you know you've always been my little brother with weird mutated genes. I suppose I did take a bit too much hay on my fork." She cuddled Harry half to death while she thought for a moment. "At least I finished with my strategy for the tournament during those da-, errr, meetings with Bill, he really was a great help. And I suppose Delinda could take over some of my lessons now that she joined the study club, she's really good in arithmancy. I understand now that I really need some free time, especially with you."

"Yeah, Delinda is great.", Harry said, blushing madly.

"Yes, you would say so!", Hermione replied smugly, throwing Harry a knowing glance.

The true Delinda Malfoy had been a total surprise to everyone. When she still pretended to be a boy, she had been an absolute brat. She still acted somewhat like a princess, but on a girl that at least looked more logical than on a boy. She had improved a lot though, she had lost a lot of her arrogance, treated ALMOST everyone as equals and was much more laid back now that the constant strain of keeping up a false identity had disappeared. Needless to say, no one missed old Draco Malfoy, Delinda Malfoy was a lot more popular.

Especially Harry seemed to gravitate towards the fair-haired young girl, because of her now quite friendly personality and her good looks. Her hair had grown long, and although she would probably always be slim, her body had started to show more curves. Harry didn't exactly know what to think of her, but he was happy to spend some time on figuring that out.

"I told Delinda about Sirius.", Harry suddenly said. Hermione's head shot up.

"Are you sure? I mean, I know she's changed and all, but this seems a bit risky."

Harry however stood by his decision. "Her mother really wants to divorce that Malfoy goon. To do that, she needs permission from her head of house, which is Sirius, because she was born as Narcissa Black, blood family is more important than marriage. Giving permission is for Sirius not a case of signing some documents via owl post, he will have to stand in front of the Wizengamut and declare his support to Narcissa's decision. If he were to do that while still considered a criminal… Well, what happened last year should give some indication."

"Have you talked to Sirius about it?", Hermione asked. Harry smiled at her.

"I'm not a completely thoughtless person. I kept him up to date through that magical mirror he gave me about Delinda's changes. He said that Narcissa used to be quite a nice person before she married Malfoy. Apparently the Black family had a betrothal contract with the Malfoys. Narcissa was never supposed to marry the goon, but then her two older sisters turned out to be unable to fulfill it, Andromeda because she eloped with a muggleborn, and Bellatrix because she's infertile, so she had to, to prevent a family feud. She became bitter because she got stranded with a man she hates while it wasn't even supposed to be."

Narcissa's attitude now started to make sense.

"That's pretty awful. But what can we do about it?", Hermione wondered.

"Well, the only option is something we were already trying to accomplish, setting Sirius free.", Harry said as if it were obvious.

"That's easier said than done though.", Hermione said sympathetically, and slightly skeptical.

"True. But now that Malfoy's neutralized we've got a much bigger chance."

Hermione thought about it. Malfoy senior had lost a lot of money to the Bones family, and he'd been thoroughly disgraced. That sparked an idea in the girl's brain.

"Susan, can't she help?", Hermione asked.

"Susan? Why she?", Harry asked confused.

"Well, she and Narcissa are both victims of Lucius Malfoy in a sense. If she were to play up the helpless victim angle she'd get a lot of sympathy. She could point out that Sirius is the only one who can resolve the situation, and what a shame it is that he's an escaped convict."

"Convict – yes!", Harry agreed enthusiastically. "Sirius was never officially convicted. Susan's aunt and legal guardian, Amelia Bones, she's the head of law enforcement so of course she would know that. She would feel obliged to share the fact because her job is to make sure justice is served."

Hermione was really warming to the idea now too. "Indeed, and then if you, as Sirius' godson, volunteer to pay for the investigation, the Wizengamut can't really object against it because it won't cost them a knut. Sirius will pay you back, of course."

"We should tell Sirius!", Harry said immediately, eager to share the plan with his godfather. Hermione however snorted.

"If he wakes up before noon, you mean."

* * *

When it was noon, and they finally managed to wake Sirius, albeit with the help of one Remus Lupin and three buckets of water, the atmosphere in the glum house lifted considerably. The idea of an actual plan to set him free, one that would probably work even, made Sirius giddy like a three year old child. Remus just shook his head as he watched his friend's antics, trying to keep a straight face. The Sirius in question however swore he saw his old friend smiling when Sirius transfigured a statue of his father to look like a werewolf.

Once Remus, Harry and Hermione managed to hide all the sugar and Sirius finally calmed down a bit, the two teenagers decided to tell the marauders about their book. They were very enthusiastic about the idea, even more so when they read parts of the rough draft.

"And when do you plan to publish it?", Remus asked after he finished reading the chapter about the battle with Quirrel during the first year.

"Right after Voldemort is defeated. If we were to publish it any earlier, people would probably think I was either trying to draw attention or to abuse my fame to make money.", Harry answered.

"You're right, good that you realized that.", the man remarked, impressed.

"Hermione did.", Harry said with a grin.

"Oh."

"Not only that,", Hermione interjected, "but it also wouldn't be wise to prove to any remaining Voldemort supporters that he's still alive. Or make them aware of just how much we know for that matter."

"That's true.", the other three agreed.

"Where did you get so much information anyway?", Sirius asked with a slight frown after putting down a list of notes on how to destroy horcruxes. "Take this for example, horcruxes are really vile things, on which even the Black library has hardly any information, yet you seem to know all about them."

"Easy.", Harry and Hermione said with matching grins.

"You do the honors, Harry. It was after all you who discovered it.", Hermione said with a mock salute to her friend.

"Ah, yes, the good old times. Anyway, I had just killed that nasty basilisk thingy in the chamber of secrets and saved Ginny Weasley. I had explained everything to Dumbledore, et cetera et cetera. Then I remembered Dobby, Malfoy's old house elf who had a really bad life, I wanted to set him free. To accomplish that I asked Dumbledore if I could give Malfoy Riddle's ransacked diary back. I put a sock in it, a very dirty sock might I add, and handed it to Malfoy senior. He didn't appreciate the sock, so he threw the book away, but Dobby caught it, including the sock, so he was free. Malfoy went away, and Dobby gave me the diary back. I was curious how it looked inside, because so much ink had spilled from it when I stabbed the thing. Turns out it had become a regular old diary."

"It became a normal diary, so what.", Sirius said impatiently. Harry just smiled.

"Well, what does one do with a diary? Write in it of course. Riddle's soul no longer guarded the information in it, and any previous protective spells had been broken by the horcrux enchantment, so I could read everything in it. A simple reparo charm repaired the hole in the middle, so we didn't miss any text there. We now know all about Voldemort, from his favorite foods to the hiding places of his other horcruxes."

"Other horcruxes? He has more than one?", Remus asked, his face pale.

"Six.", Harry said grimly, "And perhaps even seven."

That little remark kind of dampened the Christmas spirit. It lifted again considerably though when Remus and Sirius learned that some were already destroyed, and that there were plans to destroy the others.

The diary had, of course, been destroyed in the Chamber of Secrets during second year.

Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem had been destroyed approximately 37 minutes after Dobby revealed to Harry the location of the Room of Requirement when Dobby helped him pack his trunk at the end of that same year.

Marvolo Gaunt's ring had also been destroyed, courtesy of Bill Weasley. Once Hermione started dating him, she had told him about the old shack and the dangerous object that had to be there. To do her a favor he had tracked down the derelict building, broken down the wards, removed the ring and destroyed it with a basilisk fang which his girlfriend had kindly let him borrow.

Helga Hufflepuff's cup had been slightly trickier, and it had elicited quite the reaction from Sirius. Harry and Hermione had of course read in the diary that it had to be in the Lestrange vault at Gringotts. During her third year she had spent some time researching pureblood family trees, mainly to laugh at the suspicious gaps in them. The absence of a great-grandfather on mother's side in the Goyle's tree made her suspect that that boy really had some troll blood in him. She did however come across a very familiar name: Nymphadora Tonks.

Nymphadora Tonks was the very same seventh year Hufflepuff whom Hermione had helped ambush some assailants during her first year, and now she read that this was in fact the niece of Bellatrix Lestrange, apart from the Lestrange brothers the only one with access to the vault. With Andromeda being Bellatrix's older sister and Narcissa her younger, Hermione guessed that Andromeda was the most likely one to have gotten any of the mad witch's stuff when Bellatrix was convicted, even though Narcissa's husband was of higher status.

A quick letter exchange told Hermione that Andromeda Tonks in fact held in her possession the wand of Bellatrix Lestrange, and that Nymphadora could get her hands on it. Hermione of course remembered that her friend was a metamorph magus, and therefore could assume the exterior of any person including Bellatrix. Getting into the vault with the peacetime low-security policy should be possible, the goblins wouldn't care that Bellatrix was supposed to be imprisoned, and indeed it was. To settle her old debt of honor to Hermione, Tonks retrieved the cup and handed it over, and naturally it was quickly destroyed by the other girl.

To say that Sirius didn't like the danger in which his baby cousin had put herself was an understatement worthy of an order of Merlin, and it took his three companions quite some time to convince the man that Tonks was a grownup and an auror now.

* * *

After they discussed the horcruxes there was only one really memorable issue that came up.

"I notice there's a lot of emphasis on the fact that Lily sacrificed herself to save Harry.", Sirius remarked. "That's a good thing, she doesn't get enough credit."

It remained silent for a moment before Hermione clarified the point.

"Harry was hailed as a hero for defeating Voldemort whilst he didn't do anything. Lily should be the hero of that occasion as she died for her son, making it all possible."

"I often thought that too.", Remus sighed sadly. "The wizarding world would never accept that a muggleborn witch saved them all though." Hermione nodded in agreement.

"Well they should!", Harry said heatedly, his eyes suspiciously wet.

Hermione smiled at her friend. "That's why I'm making a name for myself, I want to change things for the better."

"She would be proud of you.", Remus and Sirius echoed. Harry just smiled in gratitude.


End file.
